Customer Reviews

Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to The Songs of Johnny Cash

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this cd at the same time as the other current Cash tribute, Dressed In Black, and I must say that this is the lesser of the two works by far. It seems to me that several of the "big names" on Kindred Spirits just plain go bust. Bob Dylan may be one of the greatest songwriters of all time, but his rendition of "Train of Love" is pathetic (tempo too slow, voice sounds like he swallowed a handful of gravel). Bruce Springsteen fares little better on "Give My Love To Rose", and don't even get me started on Keb' Mo'. I saw him on the CMT special about this cd and he claimed to have never heard "Folsum Prison Blues" before and that he was not familiar with Johnny Cash, but he did this because Marty Stuart wanted him to. So why was he included on a tribute to such a great man, when he obviously could care less? Now for the good news . . . this cd does contain some wonderful cuts. Hank Jr. comes through big time on "Big River", as does Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, and Little Richard rocks on "Get Rhythm". The trio of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Sheryl Crow, and Emmylou Harris blend beautifully. Overall, worth adding to your collection, but could have been much better.

If you honestly can't bring yourself to say the words "I shot a man in Reno/ just to watch him die," I guess that's okay. There's just one requirement with that condition, and that is that you don't ever, EVER attempt to sing Folsom Prison Blues. Whoever let Keb Mo do that song on an album without the most important line should be fired, and Keb Mo should be kept from recording ever again. Heresy. Blasphemy. Scandal. A pox on everyone who let this happen.

The songs of Johnny Cash have once again laid the foundation for a tribute album, and this one may be the *one*. Despite some tentative entries by some well-meaning younger artists we have a perennial here. (And I did not detect any computer-driven sounds).
Yes, Charlie Robison's version of "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" (I wish Bruce S., who did "Give My Love To Rose", and Charlie R. switched tunes), Kevin "Keb' Mo'" Moore's "Folsom Prison Blues", and Travis Tritt's "I Walk The Line", are good listenable, respectful tributes but somehow fall short on their own. "I Walk The Line" is an exotic beat ballad and the original is the one that works for me. Then again there's Jaye P. Morgan's...JK, JP.
Not to dwell on younger-older, especially on a from-the-heart set like this, but the seasoned pipes of Little Richard, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen really carry the message. Richard, at age 69, delivers on "Get Rhythm", a melody finely tuned to his staccato vocal style, though a lower key might have been even more effective; his piano playing is well-mixed. His longtime sideman Jesse Boyce is on bass. Bob is not in his best voice on "Train Of Love", but the arrangement is so good that one is not concerned about the occasional roughness. Bruce's contribution could easily take a place on any of his own albums, though the track runs a little long.
At the end of the day, it's Mr. Johnny Cash, who seizes the moment. Along with Janette Carter, a Carter family member, influential artist, and founder of the Carter Family Music Memorial, and June Carter Cash, et. al, he sings "Meet Me In Heaven", a monumental reflection for the ages. His is the last voice we hear and it's sensitively presented.

I saw the CMT Special on TV that was made when this album was being recorded and it was almost as good as the album. They interviewed the artists and Johnny & June Cash. Plus you see the artists sing their version of these songs live. Johnny Cash sure seemed to like them all. He said Keb' Mo's version of "Folsum Prison Blues" was great and he thought Travis Tritt's rendition of "I Walk The Line" was the best he ever heard. Seems to me he ought to know if anyone does and I must say I agree with Johnny. I love this album and every song on it. I also have them all sung by Johnny Cash, also GREAT. As to the whiners that complain about the different interpertations of these songs. Who would want to hear a Johnny Cash song sung by someone else if they were just trying to sound like Johnny Cash?(As if anyone could) Now that would suck! If you want to hear Johnny Cash singing Johhny Cash then buy a Johnny Cash album there are plenty out there and all of them are GREAT. Anyone who does not like the tracks on here dosen't know Jack about good music. This is a TRIBUTE to Johhny Cash by some of the best artists in country music singing the songs their way, making them their own and doing a great job of it. Oh by the way "Meet me in Heaven" is sung by Janette Carter, a member of the Carter Family who won many awards including a Grammy, not June Carter Cash Johnny's wife, with Johnny joining in. Janette's voice like Johnny's matured with the years. Take it for what it is a loving tribute to a Great Man. This album would be a bargin at twice the price.

The Statler Bros used to do a great tribute song that paid respects to what John R Cash had done for them, and this CD takes that thought to a whole new plane. We all owe Cash.
When the brass kicks in on Yoakams Understand Your Man, one has to tip the hat to Cash for "inventing" brass on country music on Ring of Fire. First man in took the hits: Cash
Little Richard reminds us that when Cash and the Sun Records gang hit vinyl, nothing would remain the same. Laugh if you want, but Cash took the higher artistic road and avoided the craze that became Elvis, and is alive to tell about it.
Throw in the obvious heartfelt comments by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Hank Williams Jr and you began to understand that all popular music culture, from folk to rock to hard country, know that Cash is one of the pillars that makes their art.
Chapin Carpenter, Crow and Harris at the same time? only a song with the weight of Flesh and Blood could make that work.
Marty Stuart did a great job on this project. (I've just got to figure out who or what the heck a Keb Mo' is. The courage to touch Folsom Prison Blues make him interesting as well as talented!)
For Luther, by The Mudcats, is a haunting memory click to the importance of Luther Perkins. Luther truely did play the boogie woogie and Johnny has always been very clear about Luthers role in his career,and its the inclusion here of that tribute is another example of artistic correctness cash-style.
If you've studied country music history at all, turn off the lights and concentrate on Meet Me In Heaven. If you don't feel chills on your spine, hear more of the Carter family and read about Johnny's thought on God. This testament to Family and God couldn't be more rendering.
Do I like this Cd? It meets John R Cash's approval, that means it is good. Who cares who else likes it: hear it.

With the names on this CD performing Johnny Cash music, I was sure it would be entertaining. This is excellent! From Bruce Springsteen's soft ballad "Give My Love to Rose" to the rousing style of Little Richard with "Get Rhythm".

The entire collection is just that....a tribute! Some people object to others covering Johnny's songs, but that's what a tribute is all about....covering the song... You may like it and you may not, regardless the tribute is refreshing. Yes, and I can still go back and listen to Johnny if I want to.

There has been discussion of Keb Mo changing the lyrics to "Folsom Prison Blues"...as he sings in a bluesy tune.. "they say I shot a man in Reno.. but that was just a lie." According to a quote from "The Tennessean" newspaper, after the line was changed and sung, Marty Stuart replied. "Let me tell you about that line you just changed. That's one of the most sacred lines in country music." Suprisingly, Stuart allowed the change.

One style I didn't care for is Travis Tritt's "I Walk the Line". True, he does it great! But since that has been my all time favorite country song since whenever, I just can't appreciate the soothing ballad he turned it into. Just my opinion.

All in all, this is an excellent tribute with fine performers. And, to cap off the entire CD, how great the 20 or 30 second instrumental of that famous guitar sound to "I Walk The Line." .....MzRizz

This is a great album, with each artist adding their own style to Cash's songs. The only track I tend to skip is Get Rhythm, the Little Richard track, but that is simply a matter of personal taste. To be fair to Little Richard, he makes the song a Little Richard song, which I suppose is the whole point of the album.

The Travis Tritt version of I Walk The Line is a great version, and the Flesh and Blood cover really shows off the emotion of the song and the summertime lyrics.

I do think the earlier reviews are unkind on Keb Mo. The whole point of the album is that artists do their versions of Cash songs, not simply sing Cash's songs in the style of Cash. Keb Mo's Folsom Prison Blues is rendered as a delicious blues song, and the lyric change suits the song as a blues song. Doesn't the song from the view of a wronged and innocent better suit the blues sound than the gun-toting tale of the Cash version? The Cash version fits Cash. The Keb Mo version fits Keb Mo, and I think it is one of the outstanding tracks on the album.

This album has great songs and good musicians. Regrettably, instead of being a "tribute" to a legend, Marty Stuarts compliation instead strips the identity from the man the album allegedly seeks to honor. Unbelievably, and to the horror of true Cash fans, Keb' Mo' changed the infamous lyric of "Folsom Prison Blues" because he was bothered about shooting "a man in Reno just to watch him die," so he changed it to make the narrator innocent. The entire dynamic of a brilliant song was quashed. In a Dec. 13, 2002 interview with Don Imus, Cash himself stated he had no idea that Marty Stuart had O.K.ed a lyric change and that he would never have agreed to having the song ever changed, calling it "idiotic." It was later stated by Keb Mo that he had no general idea of who Cash was or what the song meant before being approached to do it. Nice artist choice Marty. Cash fans will properly reject this. The bad part about that is that Rosanne Cash's "I still miss someone" is stellar. Her voice bleeds of lonliness and hunger. Too bad it is lost in the disrespect of other tracks.

The stand out track on this album is "Get Rhythm" as performed by Little Richard on this project. The whole project is worth the buy for this track alone.

Well, here's the big surprise of 2002: with two competing Cash tributes coming out within a week of each other, it turns out that the major label, packed-with-commercial-stars tribute is by far the better of the two. The reason why is that finally, for once, someone pays homage to Cash without simply aping his style and sound to a "T." Almost all of the songs on here take a markedly new approach to all the same old songs. Cash's trademark slap bass is left behind in favor of languid, drifting rhythms, and instrumental touches that Cash himself would rarely (if ever) approach, such as slide guitars and keyboards, dominate the album, creating entirely original takes on a dozen+ Cash classics. The album opens up with Dwight Yoakam's expansive reinterpretation of "Understand Your Man," followed by a mournful version of "I Still Miss Someone," by Johnny's daughter, Rosanne Cash. Other surprises include neo-Southern rocker Travis Tritt's authoritative reading of "I Walk The Line," here taken as a mellow, super-slow ballad, and blues picker Keb Mo's haunting and similarly slow version of "Folson Prison Blues." Bob Dylan sings "Train Of Love," one of his own songs that Cash covered back in the politically polarized '60s, acknowledges Cash's open-minded approach to music making in a brief but heartfelt introduction. A couple of artists, like Hank Williams Jr. and Steve Earle, fail to surprise us, and an Emmylou Harris/Mary Chapin Carpenter/Sheryl Crow team-up on "Flesh and Blood" sounds perky and bland on a song that is deeply, smoulderingly erotic. On balance, though, this is the Cash tribute album we've all been waiting years for -- respectful, but adventuresome, giving Cash's work new resonance and depth, teasing out nuances that were easy to miss in Cash's rollicking original performances. Check it out!