Customer Reviews

Road Less Travelled: Sun Recordings

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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.

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.

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.

Apart from buying a more comprehensive collection, such as The Sun Years, a three-disc set released by Charly Records, this is a fine way to survey Cash's Sun recordings. What I would ask from this collection are a few more tracks--alternate versions of Folsom Prison Blues (though available on other releases) and I Walk the Line. However, the tracks on this collection shine a little more brightly by the absence of the more popular tracks, which makes it a very good collection that you should put in your CD collection.

An intriguing musical footnote for Cash devotees, these 18 clean-sounding demos, undubbed originals, and alternate takes (with false starts) date from around 1954 to `58 at Sam Phillips's Sun Records. It's classic Cash stripped to the bare essentials -which is how he has always sounded best. Uncluttered with backup singers, "Ways Of A Woman In Love" has slightly different words than the hit version. "Wide Open Road" is a rare Tennessee Three tape from Red Kernodle's brief stint on steel guitar. "My Two Timin' Woman," a 1947 Hank Snow song released only in Snow's native Canada, shows how far young Cash (or Phillips) searched for songs.

"New Mexico" (a dusty cousin to Ramblin' Jack Elliott's standard "Diamond Joe"), "Wreck Of The Old 97," and Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" mark Cash's folk roots, while Jimmie Skinner's composition "Doin' My Time"-like some of Cash's writings - is so plain spoken, it could pass for a trad ballad. Gospel didn't interest Sam Phillips (a factor in Cash's leaving Sun), but Cash did manage to record his own inspirational effort "Belshazar" during this period, written in the spirit of his future in-laws The Carter Family's "Little Moses." Even at the start of his career - though it's unlikely that many realized it - Cash was among America's elite folk singers.

This collection might be subtitled "The dregs of the Sun Archives" and be accurate, but my God, how good these 18 short, unadorned renditions are! They come from throughout his Sun career (very early in 1955 to early in '58) so they are not "audition" songs by an untrained singer. But how Johnny Cash-like they are...the Johnny of the 1990's, who finally was allowed to release performances with little or no accompaniment and no studio enhancements. His voice, his emotions, in many cases his writing, his guitar and the guitar of Luther Perkins and the bass of Marshall Grant is all anyone ever needed by Johnny Cash. On this CD, you get some "country" and you get some "folk" songs as well. I like his versions of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" and the traditional "Wreck of the Old '97" and can't help but compare them to versions by my favorite folksinger, the late great Cisco Houston. (Check out www.ciscohouston.com). Johnny and Cisco never met, as far as I know (Cisco died in 1961) but I think they would have had a lot to talk and sing about if they had. This CD will likely become one of the most-played in my Cash collection, because simplicity is never really out-of-date when the singer's voice makes you believe in the words, and the words are interesting in themselves. The stuff on here actually is better than the final singles released by Sam Phillips, which were all gussied up for the '50's commercial sensibility. If you are a fan of Johnny, don't neglect this collection.

I HAVE HEARD JOHNNYS MUSIC SINCE I WAS A CHILD HES STILL AS GOOD AS HE HAS EVER BEEN GOD BLESS HIM AND HIS FAMILY .KEEP ON SINGING.