Customer Reviews

Johnny Cash - Live at Montreux 1994

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've just received this DVD and I can't seem to stop playing it. It is TERRIFIC!!!! I agree with the previous reviewer that Johnny Cash's voice developed an even richer quality as he aged. Mr. Cash and his lovely wife June's performances added such class to every stage they graced. I enjoyed the mixture of his old songs as well as his more recent songs from his "American Recordings" Collection which contain some of my favorite songs. The affection Johnny Cash had for his fans is always so nice to see. He respected his fans and his fans respected him. If you purchase this DVD, it will be one that you'll watch over and over again because this DVD is the essence of Johnny Cash. This DVD is A MUST for EVERY Johnny Cash fan as well as for anyone who enjoys listening to great music from an extremely talented singer :)

The Johnny Cash live show is captured in this remarkable performance from the 1994 Montreux Jazz Festival. Johnny plays through nineteen of his songs, with an appearance from his wife June Carter Cash and their son John Carter Cash. The band performs most of Cash's biggest hits and a few surprises. Being from his later time period, the show balances Johnny's ol' time rockabilly days with the 'folkier' songs from his American (Rick Ruben) period. At this point in his career, Cash's voice aged and matured like a fine wine. While a European jazz festival may seem like an odd gig for Johnny Cash, he nonetheless makes it work in style. Voices are difficult to hear during introductions and stage banter, but the musical sound quality is perfect. The video footage is straight forward without bells or whistles -just Johnny Cash and forty years of his music.

Yes the technical production of this DVD is a bit of a worry. There are sound problems especially at the beginning, but I have been at festivals such as the Ottawa Blues Festival when the sound technicians were pre-occupied due to its numerous performers, nonetheless this is no excuse for those handing out their hard earned money, especially in this day and age of its so called advance technology. Besides sound the camera shots are fair to good, but some shots are questionable and quite amateurish. Yes production was from 1994 when all industries like film and television suffered from cutbacks so I am not surprised as quality is not of a higher quality. Besides the technical issues, it was a concert. My highlight are the song `Big River', `The beast in me', and `Orange Blossom Special.'. He had just completed his first album for American recordings. An aging Cash was at his best even if the technical team were not. I am proud to own this DVD, the concert is 9 out of 10, while the production values a 5 out of 10. Because I am like many other critics who write reviews, I will be overly generous and give a mark of 8 out of 10, but since Amazon uses a star system from one to five, I will give this DVD 4 stars.

I was fortunate enough to see Johnny Cash twice in concert, including once in 1994, the year this was made. While I like this DVD and have watched it several times, I give it four stars versus five due to fairly consistent sound level and mixing problems on the audio track. The set list is fairly standard for Johnny from that time period, and includes many of his most popular originals plus many from the then-new "American Recordings" (which I admit are not generally among my favorites.)

From my understanding Johnny had a sore throat the night this show was taped (though the only real evidence for that is the repetitive throat clearing between songs) and I don't think he was quite at the top of his game during this show. The band was great, and W.S. Holland, Johnny's drummer since 1958, was in particularly excellent form that night. Standouts included great renditions of "Folsom Prison Blues," "Ring of Fire," "I Walk The Line," and "Redemption" (where Johnny discusses sin and redemption, the theme of his then-latest album.) Of all the songs in the set, though, I think the standout performance is on "Orange Blossom Special" with a particularly great "dueling harmonicas" interlude. Interestingly, I was really looking forward to "Jackson" and "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" with June, which are normally simply divine to listen to live, but I thought these were two of the weaker spots in the set, with Johnny and June both in different keys during parts of each (especially noticeable on "Jackson") and John Carter Cash adding to the vocal disharmony on occasion as well.

The show closer "The Next Time I'm In Town" was a real treat and definitely ended the show on a high note. Unfortunately, the crowd, while respectful and appreciative was not overly warm or enthusiastic, which I guess is not that surprising given that the venue was a European jazz festival.

Any Johnny Cash show is pure pleasure and is to be treasured. While this one perhaps does not show Johnny at his very best, it is still very, very good and deserves repeated viewings (my copy has had quite a workout.) Were it not for the audio problems I would give this DVD five stars because even on an off night Johnny Cash easily earns it.

This is an interesting DVD of a live concert from 5 July 1994. Johnny Cash looks elderly, yet this is from the era when he got signed to the American recording label, and his career was enjoying yet another comeback and some very good musical output.

This JOHNNY CASH--LIVE AT MONTREUX 1994 on DVD is about 60 minutes long. The finished product is a little rough around the edges. This is not part of a Johnny Cash tour, but an appearance at an international music festival of some reknown in its own right, (this is the festival where Stevie Ray Vaughan was discovered by David Bowie in the early 1980s). The DVD cover has typos, like they spell Folsom wrong, "Fulsome Prison Blues"; and the PA/sound man does a lousy job of mic volume between songs, which are usually too quiet to hear what is being said without turning up your TV.

Johnny Cash looks tired and scraggily, but for the most part he and his band sound very good! His son John Carter Cash plays guitar in his band, and he has W.S. Holland on drums (since way back in the 1950's). The liner notes say Johnny had a sore throat, but you don't notice it in most songs, just an occasional cough or clearing his throat, rarely messing up any songs, (but that does happen at least once during a flubbed verse due to coughing).

"Get Rhythm" sounds great! It is a bit rearranged to be a little smoother and bouncy, compared to the original. "Ghost Riders in the Sky" has Johnny doing some "coyote" yipping and yelping, as if he were herding cows on a horse, maybe.

After about 25 minutes, he starts a 6 song, solo acoustic section of the concert, with just Johnny and his own acoustic guitar. His singing and playing is very strong in this 20 minute section of the show!

Then they bring out his wife, June Carter, to sing a couple of songs together. June looks a bit nervous, compared to Johnny, but I guess Johnny had already been onstage for 45 minutes, so he was already over the nervous energy of the first few songs. During "Jackson", Johnny snidely mimics the lyrics of "you big talking man", which makes June look a bit puzzled and uneasy. June speaks in a different language between songs, for the natives. Then they do "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" along with their son, John Carter Cash. This is another high point of the show, for me.

"Orange Blossom Special" features Johnny playing harmonica, as he has done in his shows for decades. He is very good here, too.

This DVD is great if you definitely like Johnny Cash, but newcomers would probably be better off checking out Johnny in his younger years, from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, perhaps? On the other hand, many younger folks might know him only from this era of his career, when he first started getting MTV play, due to being signed to Rick Rubin's record label, who had previously had big hits with a few big MTV bands, like the Beastie Boys.

I like this DVD, but it seems to be nicer to just LISTEN to the TV while I do other things, than to actually sit and WATCH the concert during repeat plays on my DVD player. It is interesting to watch it the first few times, but I get more mileage from just listening to it, like listening to the stereo, but not actually watching it.

I can also recommend THE GOSPEL ROAD on DVD. It is not a live concert, but Johnny made it 20 years earlier, on location in Israel, to tell the story of Jesus Christ.

I also have gotten more viewing time out of his recent biography DVD movie, WALK THE LINE, which got me very curious and interested in Johnny Cash, lately, and got me checking out his CDs and DVDs, in a more in-depth way, in the first place.

My favorite Johnny Cash item is his 16 CD, spoken word reading of the entire NEW TESTAMENT of THE HOLY BIBLE, available on amazon.com, and very reasonably priced! My favorite Gospel CD by Johnny is GOSPEL GLORY, so far.

My favorite live music CD by Johnny is JOHNNY CASH AT SAN QUENTIN, which is a little more relaxed, yet more intense and varied than JOHNNY CASH LIVE AT FOLSOM PRISON, though both are classic live albums, and classic Johnny Cash albums worth owning.

Johnny Cash rules (see American IV), but the sound mix on this disc could have been a lot better. Thankfully, they give you a DTS track, but it's not a very good one. Fortunately, the songs make up for it as does Johnny. The highlight for me are the songs off the first American album, but plenty of oldies round off the collection. Anyway, for the money the disc is worth picking up, just don't expect sound like in Roy Orbison's Black and White Night DVD.

This is a must see for any true fan of The Man in Black, as well as his lovely wife June Carter Cash.

From the opening strains of `Folsom Prison Blues' to the closing `Next Time I'm in Town', this DVD concert had me mesmerized. I truly adore Johnny Cash and everything he has done. And I was amazed he did one of my favorites, `Delia's Gone', especially with Mrs. June Carter Cash with him...but I respect her even more for knowing a great tongue in cheek song when she hears it!!

And since I play drums, finding out that the reason his sound is so consistent is because Johnny loved Carl Perkins's drummer, Mr. W.S. Holland, and his snare work on Blue Suede Shoes. So in typical Johnny Cash style, he basically 'stole' Mr. Holland from Perkins!! The love they have for one another's gifts from God are clearly exhibited.

And although I do play drums, the period in the show where it's just Johnny, his guitar and his voice telling a story, are especially breathtaking. 'Tennessee Stud', which I'd never heard, was very inspiring, as were the Gospel tinged songs Mr. Cash wrote, `The Beast in Me', `Bird on a Wire', and `Let the Train Blow the Whistle', each brought a tear to my eye as the truths in those song are very universal.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the awesome job Mrs. June Carter Cash and the great couple's son John Carter Cash did on 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken'. That will make even an atheist believe in and praise the one and only true and living God, of which she and Johnny firmly believed in.

Buy this movie!!!!

I have just received this DVD from amazon.com. Took less than 2 weeks for international delivery, not bad at all. The first few songs are performed in a rather deadpan manner, without a hint of a smile from any of the backup musicians. From I Walk The Line onwards, the spirit picks up and finally climaxes in a rousing version of Jackson with June Carter and John Carter Cash joining his famous mum and dad in Will The Circle Be Unbroken.

As this was presumably the concert to promote his then latest album American Recordings, Cash sings a number of songs from it in his inimitably poignant and heartfelt manner, Bird on A Wire being exceptionally beautiful. There are some mic-ing problems, the spoken intro to some of the songs is hardly audible and the DVD release is only in 2-channel stereo. But generally, the audio-visual quality is good and well worth the price you pay.

This is Johnny Cash up close and personal. The viewer enjoys old classics and songs from a newer album - which are quite good (must be mid 1990s). Johnny Cash draws from his past, with his new songs about internal struggle and fighting the demon we all have inside. The show is very good and the groove just gets better as the concert progresses.

This DVD is in full screen format and when viewed on a widescreen TV, slight stretching is noted, but not distracting. (Hey, you can change your TV setting if it bothers you). The 5.1 remix is great with nice .1 bass. The optional stereo mix is fair and does not have a full sound, like the 5.1 mix.

I picked this video up locally for a better price than on line, and recommend the DVD as an addition to your collection.

Cash Fans,

Johnny Cash Live At Montreux is for all Cash fans! This DVD is a complete Johnny Cash concert; no commentary, just Johnny live in concert from the moment he walks on stage until the finish of the concert!

Presented in full-screen format, the color and quality of the video is excellent. Twelve cameras were used in professionally filming this video, so there are plenty of close ups of Johnny, Bob, Fluke, John Carter, and June to medium and long distant shots of the band and of the vast audience.

The audio is also great. Johnny's voice is strong in this concert. In 5.1 surround, the applause and shouts coming from the side speakers made me feel like I was in the audience.

The last time I saw Johnny was in 1997. This DVD captures the look, feel and sound of that performance. Highly recommended.