Maybe it wasn\u2019t always the case, but nowadays, listening to a Johnny Cash record is often akin to putting on a comfortable pair of slippers. You pretty much know what to expect, and that end result makes you happy.<\/p>\n
In 1957, Sam Phillips took a chance with Cash and made him one of the first artists to release a full-length album on his label (having specialized in singles up to this point). That disc, With His Hot And Blue Guitar<\/i>, contains some of the most memorable work of Cash\u2019s career, and while a few selections fall a bit flat today, it has remained overall an incredible album to listen to.<\/p>\n
If all you knew about Cash were his songs \u201cI Walk The Line\u201d and \u201cFolsom Prison Blues,\u201d then you certainly will not be disappointed, as these two tracks feature significantly on this album. But to limit the album to just these two songs is doing the bulk of the material a terrible disservice, as there are many other tracks worthy of your attention.<\/p>\n
Take, for example, \u201cCry! Cry! Cry!\u201d, \u201cCountry Boy\u201d or \u201cDoin\u2019 My Time.\u201d In another time and dimension, these more than likely would have been huge records for Cash\u2014in fact, \u201cCry! Cry! Cry!\u201d did achieve success on the country charts. But what sets the music that Cash and \u201cThe Tennessee Two\u201d\u2014guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant\u2014apart from many of their peers in the country world is that the music has more than a tip of the cap to the nascent rockabilly scene that was developing. And while these tracks could not by any means be classified as rock, they have a peppiness in the delivery that wasn\u2019t necessarily heard in the world of country and western music at that time.<\/p>\n
There are, however, a few songs that have not aged nearly as well. Cash\u2019s take on the standard \u201cRock Island Line,\u201d despite the fact it shows off his ability to deliver guitar lines and lyrics in a rapid-fire style, fails to really catch the listener\u2019s interest. And while I\u2019m not going to knock his choice to include two Jimmie Davis gospel-oriented songs, one does have to question how these fit in with some of the other tracks. (And, yes, I\u2019m well aware of Cash\u2019s spiritual upbringing and faith\u2014in fact, Cash would touch on these subjects for the remainder of his career.)<\/p>\n
All in all, though, With His Hot And Blue Guitar<\/i> is a respectable first full-length outing for Cash. Had this been the only album he released, it would still be recognized as the near-perfect classic it is. As it is, it\u2019s an interesting snapshot of Cash\u2019s early days, and sets a pattern of things to come from the Man In Black.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5664],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-46676","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnny-cash","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46676"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}