Customer Reviews

Personal File (Dig) (Slip) (Spkg)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First off, if you're merely superficially curious after the hype surrounding, "Walk The Line" this isn't for you. Many songs feature spoken word introductions that may wear on the listener in time. So this isn't something you'd throw on at a party, or are likely to bop around to while plugged into your i-pod. These recordings are best appreciated while sitting down and listening to as an entire album. The end effect is like having The Man In Black in your living room, giving you your own private concert. Much like the magic wrought on the 1st American Recordings album.

Though his later recordings with Rick Rubin were compelling, the ravages of illness were apparent. In addition, some song choices ("Personal Jesus", anyone?) seemed a little "calculated". Not so here. This is sound of Cash in his prime, singing songs that deeply left their mark on him. This is a mix of now obscure covers & sepia toned traditionals. Not to mention, some unheard & truely inspired originals. In terms of sound quality, this is far from some bootleg Cash's former label dusted off in order to capitolize on a posthumous surge in popularity. Even if it were, the passion here will leave you breathless.

The 1st disc consists of so many unheard gems it's hard where to begin. If the morbid sentimentality of "Engineer's Dying Child" doesn't choke you up, there's something wrong with you. Same goes for his take on the Louvin Brothers', "When I Stop Dreaming" & C. Walker's, "Jim, I Wore A Tie Today". In less committed hands, alot of the material here would've come off as mawkish. But not here. Among the orginals, "I Wanted So" is as starkly personal as it gets. The opening line, " I wanted so to tell that old man, oh so many things" is delivered with such dignified regret it can't help but hit home. Same goes for the disc's closer, "It Takes One To Know One". A song written by his step-daughter, Carlene that he masterfully makes his own.

Where disc I is more secular in nature, disc II is dedicated to Cash's oft overlooked Gospel side. But don't let that scare you off. If anything, things get even more powerful. The weariness of "Way Worn Traveller" & "Look Unto The East" are undeniable regardless of belief. Themes of Faith & Doubt wrestle throughout but it all comes to a fore with the Cash original, "Sanctified". The way he belts out, " I'm trying to whip the devil, I'm trying to get sactified" you can just hear the demons barely kept at bay.

Along with the Unearthed boxed set, this is an all too generous & unexpected offering. But where Unearthed was released with an air of eulogy & epitaph, Personal File is the unadorned sound of Cash at his most vital & inspired. In short, essential listening for fans & detractors alike.

Johnny Cash is without a doubt one of the most distinct voices in music history. Although his medium is country music, the man transcends it. Cash has throughout the years appealed to a wide audience. In the sixties he appealed to the protest nation, in the seventies he was a darling to the Punk scene; by the start of the nineties the alternative audiences embraced him when he started working with Rick Rubin for the American Recordings. On these sessions Cash was recorded naked, just the man and his guitar. Cash hadn't sound so fresh since the late sixties. Creatively his career seemed to have gone down hill during the second half of the seventies and the eighties. The release of the Personal Files show us that Cash's muse was never missing during that period of time.

The music on Personal Files are all culled from the period his career seemed slacking. Sonically they resemble the first release of his American Recordings; yet as the title promises these recordings have a far more intimate feel. Throughout these two discs you get the idea you're privy to a living room concert for your ears only. The fact that some songs have a spoken intro heighten this experience. Some of the material here is very familiar and found its way to the studio eventually, other songs are brand new to our ears, others still have been a part of the American songbook for generations.

Here we get just Cash and his guitar, though bare, never boring. Cash has a hypnotizing quality that leaves you hanging on his lips, not missing a word. Like no other artist his material covers al aspects of life yet the most dominant themes are always guilt and redemption with Cash. His main strength is he capability to remind of our own humanity. We all falter, we all fail from time to time, yet most of us manage to pick ourselves up every time round and atone for out faults (or sins) in our own way. Cash confronts us with this constant duality in our lives, our desire to better ourselves despite the fact we're destined to fall at times. If you don't get Cash, you've got a hole in your soul.

Personal File is just that - personal. The sparse arrangements and accompanying stories breathe the true life of Johnny Cash. Too often, a man like Cash is overshadowed by the legend produced by the media, including excellent films like "Walk the Line". With Personal File, we are allowed to follow Johnny into a darkened studio. We get to hear him pull out his guitar and lead us through a musical journey that sees him come to life in the lyrics and the stories of remembrance. Most of these songs are not the kind that would sell an album. Those songs are brought to the singer by A&R experts with dollar signs in their eyes. These songs are life songs and death songs and faith songs. The listener is invited to sit quietly and let the moments sink in. And, they do sink in. If you are a fan of A Boy Named Sue and Folsum Prison, this may not be the best choice for you. If you thirst for an intimate knowledge of a man and the music deep in his soul, do not miss your chance to experience Personal File. I am blessed to have nearly all of Cash's music on CD. But, Personal File quickly became my favorite.

I have been listening to John R. Cash for over 50 years and can not recall being as affected as I was by this collection. He has done some marvelous work needless to say, particularly his American Recordings after he was "washed-up." This set goes right to the top of my extensive Cash collection. I'm sure at various times I will favor other disks but after my first listening to this set, this may be the one that gets the most play. His voice is the best that I can recall backed by the solo acoustic guitar. God, this set will make you miss Johnny all the more than you already do.

Five Stars are not enough for these treasures. Make it SIX Stars!! One of my musical heroes reveals his personal hidden musical treasures, recorded with just his wonderful bass voice and guitar, released as another musical epitaph. Discovered by John Carter Cash at the House of Cash studio in boxes simply marked "Personal File", these are priceless and inspiring performances. Songs that he enjoyed, just for the pleasure of doing them and recording them. Cutting a wide swath from folk to gospel to Tin Pan Alley to country and more, this is a STUNNING MASTERPIECE of 49 individual jewels from the "Man In Black", with spoken preludes and sung with sincerity and deep soulfulness. References to seldom heard odd musical influences like "the Williams boys" abound. And of course the huge influence of mother, "daddy": HOME. It's interesting the first four songs are mainly centered around the mother theme and they are heartbreaking and beautiful. My personal 'Piece De Resistance', the song Johnny Cash first sang in public before an audience: "Far Away Places": it doesn't get any better than that, with those wonderful bottom notes!! Also, the song that haunted Johnny for years: "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes".

Elsewhere, he takes us to many 'far away places' and people: the sunset on Galway Bay, Ireland; knief-wielding fur traders in Alaska, a dedicated train engineer looking for a different kind of signal, a family of fur trappers in Louisiana, an earthly Paradise, a bear-hunting Tiger, and true gems like "My Mother Was A Lady". Do not miss this song!! Lastly, and firstly, is his faith which is strong and deep.

Some may think that 49 straight songs from anyone is a bit much, but in this day of the CD, the Cash songs can keep coming with no repeat; or with the "party shuffle" CD player, the songs can appear every third song or so, stopping us in our tracks, riveting our attention: the downhome music of the Man in Black towering over slick 21 Century music. Or, my personal favorite: clear out a block of time, sit on the porch in the evening cool, put it on Track 1, and kick back for an AWESOME musical journey from "Johnny Cash the Troubadour": balladeer and bard. Six Stars!

(This review is based on an awesome 49 track ITunes Music Store download over a dial-up line: only for you, Johnny Cash!!)

The best ideas for songwriting are the true stories that happen to...especially to people. When you get into the human spirit, you get some good ideas sometimes." -Johnny Cash

As both a songwriter and an interpretive singer, Johnny Cash succeeded in getting into the human spirit as deeply as any artist. A true original, the purity of his artistry shone through most clearly when it was least adorned.

After the deaths of Johnny and June Carter Cash in 2003, their son John Carter Cash began going through things at the House of Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Among the treasures in a room full of tapes were boxes marked "personal files." Those boxes contained recordings Johnny had made for himself of songs that he'd written and never recorded, songs that he remembered from his childhood, songs he admired that had been written by others, songs that he would later record in more fully formed arrangements. A big chunk came from sessions laid down in July, 1973, when he was 41 years old.

This new double disc set brings together 49 of those tracks. More than half are from that ten-day burst in the summer of '73. All but two are just Johnny alone with his guitar; the other two, from 1982, feature an uncredited second guitarist. The characteristic chink-chinka-chink that distinguished Cash's hits from the `50s through the `70s is nowhere to be found.

Disc one is devoted to story songs, love songs, old favorites--the secular side of John R. Cash. There's the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming," Johnny Horton's "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)," John Prine's "Paradise," The Carter Family's "The Winding Stream," Lefty Frizzell's 1964 hit, "Saginaw, Michigan." Many of the songs are prefaced with Cash's remembrances, explaining their origins or their importance to him. It's like having Johnny Cash sitting in your living room after dinner, playing guitar, sharing songs and telling stories. Since these are recordings he apparently didn't intend for public consumption, I can't help but wonder who he was talking to. Perhaps he envisioned these tapes as some sort of aural time capsule, to be opened after his death.

"Through times of loneliness and heartbreak and despair and sadness," he says in an introduction on the second disc, "I've always found that a good song of inspiration will lift me up, make me feel just a little bit better."

Disc two contains 24 of those inspirational and spiritual songs, half of which are originals. One of my personal favorites is "What on Earth (Will You Do for Heaven's Sake)," a Cash composition that first appeared on 1974's Ragged Old Flag. Considering the premise of The Da Vinci Code, "If Jesus Ever Loved a Woman" takes on a connotation probably not envisioned by its author, who is unknown, or the man in black who sings it here: "If Jesus ever loved a woman, I think Mary Magdalene was the woman that he loved."

This disc contains a few oft-performed gospel chestnuts--"Life's Railway to Heaven," "In the Sweet Bye and Bye," "Farther Along," "The Lily of the Valley." But for the most part, these are new or little known folk spirituals, delivered in that distinctive bigger-than-life voice that fills each tune with both gravitas and joy.

Johnny Cash was one of those performers whose persona was as big as his music. Here in his Personal File, we catch a glimpse of the man beneath the persona all alone with the music he cherished the most. --Jim Newsom

Originally published in Port Folio Weekly, 6/27/06.
Copyright 2006 Port Folio Weekly. Used by Permission.

Get this CD set. There is absolutely nothing like it anywhere to my knowledge.
Johnny Cash gives us insights into his inner self with these commentaries and songs. I had not heard many of these songs and he had, of course, not performed many of them publicly. After all, this is personal stuff that he recorded for himself and, perhaps, his family.
These performances (if you can call them that) made me cry and made me laugh and made me think hard. I was a fan, but not a devoted fan of the Man in Black, so believe me when I tell you these performances are the essence of 'extraordinary' and a not to be missed experience.

This set is not for everyone or even for all Johnny Cash fans. It is very personal, very old fashion and very "down home music". It is Johnny's voice and a guitar with no frills, no mixing and no background. I love it but I am a big Cash fan, a child of the Folk Revival from the 60s and like Bluegrass Music. In addition, the second CD of hymns is part of the reason I bought the set. "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" was Grandma's Hymn. I cannot hear her sing it but Johnny brings back that precious memory.

This is not an easy listen or a happy CD but it has some great rewards for the right listener. My personal rating is five stars yours may be very different.

Johnny Cash is one of the most amazing singers and songwriters in American history. This album helps to prove it. Away from all the back up singers and bands, Johnny sits alone in his studio and records these 49 jewels to be revealed for a sunny day.

The first disc has a lot of great songs that transcend musical genre boundries. I suggest listening to the entire thing because any song sung by Johnny Cash is wonderful. His deep and rich baritone complements his guitar playing magnificently.
The second disc I feel is the true gem of this album. Johnny Cash is a great Christian man and this second disc helps to convey his relationship with Jesus Christ. Every single word in every single song is carried with great conviction and you can truly feel God's word being delivered throuh Johnny's vocals. If you enjoy this, I entirely recommend purchasing "Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament".

If you enjoyed the "American" series, you will love these newly discovered gems.

You've probably heard this somewhere before, but if you sit back, close your eyes and just listen you'll swear Johnny is sitting in the same room with you...amazing recordings...thanks to the person who found these hidden gems...obviously not something just thrown together by the record company, these are songs that obviously meant alot to Mr.Cash and will probably mean a whole lot more to you now that you've heard him perform them...