Road Less Travelled: Sun Recordings

Johnny Cash | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 13, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B00005A8MF
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,936 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. New Mexico

2. Goodnight Irene

3. I Couldn't Keep from Crying

4. Belshazzar

5. Don't Make Me Go

6. Blue Train

7. The Ways of a Woman in Love

8. Doin' My Time

9. Leave That Junk Alone

10. My Treasure

11. My Two Timin' Woman

12. I Love You Because

13. I Was There When It Happened

14. Born to Lose

15. If the Good Lord's Willing

16. Always Alone

17. Wreck of the Old '97

18. Wide Open Road

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars for a bunch of throwaways, it's outstanding, April 20, 2001

By 

punkviper (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Road Less Travelled: Sun Recordings (Audio CD)

I was a little leery of yet another JC comp, especially another Sun Years comp, and very especially one comprised of unused and unembellished tracks. But it is truly a testament to those years of Cash's recorded output that this disc is so amazing. I will take JC's Sun years over almost any other American recording artist of the 20th century, this stuff is THAT good.

And the reason these tracks are so irresistable is precisely the same reason that his Sun years will always be his defining moment: the stark, raw, honest, straightforward, forlorn, and hopeful approach that he used. The weakest tracks of the Sun years were always the ones that producers and engineers insisted on "gussying up" with everything from backup singers, to contralto voices, to bubblegum malt shop schmaltz. What we have here is the penetrating simplicity of Johnny Cash at his minimalistic best.

CASE IN POINT: The issued track "I Love You Because" was always crippled by an annoying operatic female backup vocal. Enter this disc to give us a vastly improved version that is just JC, with no distractions. It sounds perfect, and makes you wonder what brain surgeon gave the OK to insert that monstrous piercing cat-screech in the released version.

If you prefer Cash's Sun Years to any of his later work, you will enjoy this, even if you already have Varese's 2-disc "Complete Sun Singles." It makes a great addendum, and includes songs that are as good as or better than those present on the "Best Of." It's also interesting to hear 2 particular tracks present here where Cash isn't happy with the take, so he restarts a few seconds into the song, things that you won't normally hear unless you shell out big $$$ for a box set.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding collection of rare early Cash sides, April 9, 2001

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Road Less Travelled: Sun Recordings (Audio CD)

Given how well Cash's Sun-era material has been anthologized, this 18-track collection is impressive in part for actually finding a useful niche. The 18 unreleased, alternate and undubbed masters are a perfect compliment to mainstream Sun-era Cash compilations such as Rhino's "The Sun Years" or Varese's "The Complete Sun Singles." Completists may prefer Bear Family's massive "Man in Black" box set, but this overview of the rare material will suit most aficionados.

In addition to tracks and alternate versions unissued by Sun, the inclusion of several undubbed masters is quite eye-opening. For example, shorn of producer Jack Clement's vocal chorus, "I Love You Because" (a hit for Jim Reeves a decade later) reveals a honky-tonk piano that was obscured in the original release. The 1957 take of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene," featuring Cash's riveting baritone against a single acoustic guitar, is as close as you'll get to having the Man in Black sing at your campfire.

The song selection shows the varied resources from which Cash drew during his few years at Sun, as well as the dichotomy (bible and temptation) that would be with him throughout his career. Cash, like his wife, and others weaned on folk traditions, often resurrected obscure songs, both past and contemporary. "New Mexico (Hills of Mexico)" was a mid-20s cowboy ballad revitalized by Luther Perkins' tic-tac hoofbeat on guitar. "Wreck of Old '97" also dates back to the mid-20s, sung to a folk melody ("The Ship That Never Returned") that also powered The Kingston Trio's "M.T.A." "Doin' My Time," originally recorded by Jimmie Skinner, simultaneously acknowledges a long tradition of blues and folk songs, while anticipating Cash's breakthrough LPs from Folsom and San Quentin prisons.

Elsewhere Cash covers rarities from the catalogs of Hank Snow and Marty Robbins, and introduces songs by then up-and-coming writers Jerry Reed ("If the Good Lord's Willing") and Charlie Rich ("The Ways of a Woman in Love," featuring slightly different lyrics than the more commonly available version).

Also included are several of Cash's early songwriting efforts, recorded at his first Sun session in late '54 or early '55. "Wide Open Road" features a steel guitar (courtesy of the quickly departed Red Kernodle) and vocal line more reminiscent of Hank Williams than the stripped-down sound upon which Cash would build his fame. "My Treasure" was overdubbed and released in the early 60s (as, oddly enough, "My Treasurer"), but the original voice-and-guitar take presented here is a wonderfully evocative song of mistaken riches and missed love.

Cash's "Belshazar," excluded from his first LP, was also overdubbed for later release, but the original recording from '57 presents the Biblical tale of Babylon's architect in a stark manner that leverages the authority of Cash's voice and fully befits the song's moral. Also dropped from the debut LP was "Leave That Junk Alone," an early tale of struggle with the bottle.

Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to these rare tracks is that they're every bit as good as the Sun-era tracks more commonly anthologized. And for the undubbed masters, even better than the more commonly available sides. Varese has performed their usual editorial magic in selecting the eighteen tracks and providing background notes on the songs and recordings.The result is an essential companion to mainstream Sun collections that is eclipsed (mostly in completeness) by Bear Family's exhaustive treatment.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best left overs come from the best cooks, February 19, 2002

By 

"fordman777" (San Leandro, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Road Less Travelled: Sun Recordings (Audio CD)

This collection of previously unpublished works from the Sun Recordings years show the stylings that made Mr Cash the legend that he is. Here is an artist that produced a sound so genuine that even his "leftovers" could have been best sellers.
From the first track "New Mexico" with its original western traditional sound, to the oft recorded "Born to Lose", nobody makes a song sound like Johnny Cash.
One should never forget that Cash is a writer with a sense of humor, check out his "Leave That Junk Alone". This collection may not have been previously released. They should have been!
If you like good recipes for enjoyable listening, Johnny Cash is your master chef.