Customer Reviews

Carryin' On With Johnny Cash & June Carter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been a huge fan of Johnny Cash for many years, while I've always wished that June had spent more time in the recording studio.

This particular album was recorded at a time when country duets were highly fashionable. Had Johnny and June recorded more albums together, they may have had the same success as Porter and Dolly, George and Tammy, Conway and Loretta. This was a very successful album, but they didn't follow it up. Instead, they simply included their duets on Johnny's solo albums.

It ain't me babe had been a hit a couple of years before this album was recorded. The other songs were all recorded in 1967. Long-legged guitar picking man and Jackson were the two new big hits that every country oldies fan will recognise. The other songs are also excellent and demonstrate that the chemistry between Johnny and June was brilliant.

This was and remains one of the more significant albums of Johnny's long and distinguished career, and also leaves us wondering how big a star June could have been had she taken a music career seriously.

Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash are largely responsible for starting off the country star duet cycle in the late 1960's and they won every duet award to be had but they only record three albums together despite decades of performing together. This first album is the best, recorded actually before they were married. These tracks are packed with the sexual sparks these two soul mates displayed on the stage. Cash certainly seems to be enjoying himself more in the duets than in any of his solo work, he's clearly having fun! And who wouldn't, June gives such a delicious comic sass to their toe-tapping numbers. Their legendary hit "Jackson" is here as well as their sassy smash "Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man". Just as good is their first duet hit, "It Ain't Me, Babe". The Carter Family adds their unmistakable harmony to "Shanytown" - with all these Johnny and June reissues on the market, there is a definate need for some of the 60's/70's Carter Family recordings to come out of the vaults. Johnny & June weren't as prolific as Porter & Dolly or Conway & Loretta or even George & Tammy but they certainly take a back seat to no one when it comes to producing great music together.

Be sure also to get the brand new 16 BIGGEST HITS collection by Johnny and June which has all of their popular duet hits in one package.

I don't know if the disgruntled reviews I'm seeing here stem from the fact that Johnny and June are flying afield from country songwriters quite a bit here, but I can't say that I honestly believe the covers here are misbegotten or poorly performed. The pair are in the blush of new love here (it's still "hotter than a pepper sprout" to quote from the song "Jackson") and I hear that good-natured spark in "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" for instance. The out of genre tunes are given requisite country touches (the harmonica in "I've Got a Woman") to make them the duo's own. I never get the feeling it's a record label attempt to get them a "pop hit" but rather the pair's natural affection for the songs leading them to try and put their own stamp on them (and to prove that Ray Charles' love letters to country music could be a two-way street).

HIGHLIGHTS:
"Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" is a great start to the disc and one of the rare occasions where June steals the show. She turns in a sassy "ain't taking no s**t offa YOU" vocal that's thoroughly winning. The pair's take on Dylan's "It Ain't Me,Babe" utilizes a Western "campfire harmonica" and oddly enough the same mariachi trumpets they'd used on "Ring of Fire" 4 years earlier. Reading it in print makes it sound like a sloppy stylistic pastiche, but when you hear it, you realize that it works just fine. A spry "hillbillyized" version of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman" is a keeper, too. "Jackson" was probably the "biggest" song here (They re-issued the album to be named after it since it went Top 5 country and won a Grammy to boot). While it's nice in the studio form, vocally it's a bit detached. I would call the roaring live rendition on "At Folsom Prison" definitive. The "high class girl slums with the poor boy" sentiment at the heart of "No,No,No" plays into the pair's own relationship (Carter from the gospel stalwart Carter Family, Cash with an acknowledged rebel image and coming off an addiction to pills) and is a natural fit for them. The banshee yell from Johnny on "What'd I Say" is all you need to hear to tell the couple is far from "phoning it in".

LOWS:
The bonus tracks ("The Wind Changes" and "From Sea to Shining Sea") are fairly mediocre..far from essential. Of the two, "The Wind Changes" is the better.

BOTTOM LINE:
While not a Cash essential, it's still very very good. I'd recommend it for fans of Americana music and people who have the "comeback quartet" of Johnny's albums for Def American and the prison records (San Quentin and Folsom) and who wonder what to get next.

Although I became a Johnny Cash fan the first time I heard "I Walk the Line" in 1956, when I was 11, I missed this LP when it was released in 1967 because I'd been drafted. No record players were allowed in the army barracks, but even if they were, there were no funds left for buying records on a private's pay. I bought this last month because I had no June Carter vocals in my Cash/country collection. However, the only gems on here are the famous "Jackson" and "It Ain't Me, Babe" by Dylan. Overall, I found this to be not only dated, but remastered in a way that seems to subdue the vocals in favor of the accompaniment. So if you already have "Jackson" on another Cash CD, you don't need this. Two earlier reviewers, who are favorites of mine and whose views I almost always agree with, like this one a lot better than I do. I feel it is one of the most unsuccessful of Johnny's Columbia releases. He and June have fun with two R & B hits borrowed from the late Ray Charles, but what they prove is that the songs should have stayed with Ray. I still love the Man in Black, and the woman he was meant to marry, but not this particular project.

Columbia's year-long reissue program, celebrating Cash's seventieth birthday, began in February with the release of "The Essential Johnny Cash," and continues with enhanced releases of several crucial original LPs. Each album is remastered, and expanded with new essays, bonus tracks and a newly penned introduction from Cash.

Cash and June Carter had duetted before (notably on their 1965 hit with Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe," reprised here) but had yet to share equal billing. Having toured with Cash as an opening act and harmony singer, 1967's "Carryin' On With Johnny Cash & June Carter," gave Carter the chance to step out as an equal. With their marriage still a year away, the sassy call-and-response of "Jackson" and "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man," show the strong emotional bond that was already in place. Three co-writes, along with a toe-tapping remake of Richard & Mimi Fariña's "Pack Up Your Sorrows," and a pair of Ray Charles covers speak to their shared musical adventurousness. Carl Perkins' original liner notes are affectionate and funny, and Cash and Carter's contemporary introductions show the flame still burning brightly.

3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings.

I've noticed that whenever Johnny sang with June, his voice took on a different quality. It's a sound of vitality, and sounds more upbeat, even when singing about sad things. Listen to this album's "Jackson" on Folsom Prison and compare it to the rest of the album to get a sense of what I'm talking about. Most of the times, Johnny was satisfied with showing that vitality once or twice per solo album when he'd sing a duet with June.

This is a whole album of that upbeatness and vitality. This is Johnny at the top of his game, and at times it sounds as if the two are ready to get down to business right on stage (if this were a live album, who knows?). "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" is where June shines the most, "Jackson" is "Jackson," and their covers of "It Ain't Me Babe" and "I Got a Woman" rock hard. The only minor stumble is early on Ray Charles's "What'd I Say," but once June comes in, Johnny gets his act together and they bring the original album to a satisfying conclusion. The reissue has a couple of bonus tracks at the end which are sort of unnecessary, including a brief modified rendition of "America the Beautiful" which is pretty much Johnny solo with June coming on just at the very last line. You can notice the difference between his solo stuff and his duets with June right there.

This is a fantastic, underappreciated album in the Cash canon. Pick it up.

I love this recording. The love between them is so apparent and I think their love story is so remarkable.

Great selection of songs, the whole CD is infectious, you can tell they're having a great time!

I especially love the arrangement of Bob Dylan's "It
Ain't Me Babe" and "I Got A Woman" their voices blend beautifully, just like their lives did for all of those years.

Good music. Great when you were raised on the style of Johnny and June.