Johnny Cash Remixed

Johnny Cash | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 27, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Compadre Records
• ASIN: B001F1150C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,198 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2009 collection containing remixed versions of Johnny's original Sun recordings. These songs were recorded with Cash's band, the Tennessee Two, and were pure and stark with only the essentials; guitar, light percussion and Johnny's unmistakable voice. The challenge was to maintain Cash's fantastic charm and personality while filling out the sound and creating bold re-interpretations. The remix producer's reverence and gratitude were essential to the process. The goal was to bring the sensibility and technology of 2009 to recordings universally accepted as timeless with the endorsement and cooperation of the custodians of Johnny Cash's legacy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The highly controversial Johnny Cash Remixed is worth a listen., February 11, 2009

By 

Lynda Lippin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Johnny Cash Remixed (Audio CD)

Hubby and I are huge Johnny Cash fans, and there has been much heated discussion in our house about this newly released collection of classic Johnny Cash songs remixed by artists such as Alabama 3 (think Sopranos theme), Count de Money, Snoop Dogg's new QDT team, and Pete Rock. Since our musical tastes vary widely (dance, blues, hip hop, classic rock, punk, rockabilly, country, Motown, Stax,....) but we tend to like "original" sound, we really weren't sure about this. I decided to refrain from looking at any reviews until we had listened to the CD and watched the "making of" video which is also available at the Johnny Cash Remixed website.

The project was Executive Produced by John Carter Cash (Johnny and June's son), Snoop Dogg, and Mathew Knowles (Beyoncé's father), so there is some real music pedigree and blood connection to the original music in this work, which was conceived as a way of bringing some of Cash's seminal music to a wider audience. As my husband is a Southerner born and bred and LOVES Johnny Cash I let him listen first. His response was that I "had to listen to it" because it "managed to be respectful to Cash's music while still interesting in a contemporary way."

So I listened, and then listened again and again. And while I found some of the new mixes tiresome (Snoop Dogg's conversational remix of "I Walk the Line" is a bit too forced and overdone while Kennedy's "Sugartime" sounds like a bad repetitive commercial jingle), I generally enjoyed the plays on classic country blues. Philip Steir's "Get Rhythm" makes me want to dance my blues away just like the shoeshine guy whose story is the song, and Count de Money's remix of "Big River" is riveting.

Then I decided to see what others have had to say and was truly shocked to see the negative reviewer and listener response to this controversial recording. Rolling Stone's Mark Kemp calls it "musical comedy" while Pitchfork Media's Stephen Duesner likens it to "a small, remote geyser through which a little bit of hell bubbles up into our world." Even our very own Lisa Solod Warren said back in August, "The album is frankly a disappointment."

Well, either we have absolutely no taste in music whatsoever or this album really is that controversial, and I would prefer to believe the latter. If Johnny Cash Remixed is causing this much of a stir then it is worth a listen, and the majority of reviews notwithstanding I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reminds me of Cash's American recordings; Mostly excellent, January 31, 2009

By 

S. alejandro "piafins.a." (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Johnny Cash Remixed (Audio CD)

Regarding the first two reviews:
It seems that if it was okay for Johnny Cash to take songs from nine inch nails, tom waits, leonard cohen, bob marley and depeche mode (!) and put his unique stamp on them I'm not sure why it would be wrong for other artists to do similar work with his catalog.
Some of the tracks do not work (snoops version IS atrocious, some are extraordinarily good. Unfortunatley some people do not have the same open mind that Johnny Cash seemed to have.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The man in black gets new beats, October 15, 2008

By 

DJ Paul McGee (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Johnny Cash Remixed [Vinyl] (Vinyl)

Taking on classic Johnny Cash songs is no easy job for a remixer/producer. There have been many remix projects that were nothing short of a disaster.

Most of the selections on JOHNNY CASH REMIXED are enjoyable updates. The best examples are "Big River" remixed by Count De Money, "Get Rhythm," remixed by Philip Steir, "Doin' My Time," remixed by The Heavy, ""Country Boy," remixed by Sonny J., "Leave That Junk Alone" reconstructed (new vocals) by Alabama 3, "Folsom Prison Blues," remixed by Pete Rock, "Straight A's In Love," remixed by Troublemaker, and "Sugartime," remixed by Kennedy.

The set starts off with the definitive classic "I Walk The Line," which is one of the few remix/remakes that doesn't work. First off, the harmonic keys between the new music and the Cash vocal samples clash throughout the song. Snoop Dogg dominates the track--- Johnny's vocals seem to be an after thought. Cash sounds like he's coming out of a pocket AM radio.

"Doin' My Time" features a new vocal with Cash (barely) in the background. "Leave That Junk Alone" also features a new lead vocal, but with Johnny's vocals sounding richer. "Folsom Prison Blues"(106 BPM) is one of the best mixes on the set, as is "Sugartime (92 bpm)."

Most of the tracks not mentioned lean towards a darker ambient side that you'll have give a few listens to at first. There aren't any house/dance or electronica versions here, and we can all be glad they didn't go that route. The tempos are in the range of the originals on most of the songs. For true fans of Johnny Cash this will be something different and unique to treasure, and have some fun with.