Customer Reviews

Songs Of Our Soil

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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Cash's third album for Columbia (all three released in 1959!), isn't a concept album in the thematic sense of 1960's "Ride This Train," but like the preceding "Hymns," it stakes out a singular musical ground, in this case, folk ballads. Cash writes and sings songs of the American landscape (quite literally, in some cases), including tales of floods, family and the mythical West.

Though the gospel-influenced "It Could Be You (Instead of Him)" and traditional "The Great Speckle Bird" wear their faith on their sleeves, the folk songs of "Songs of Our Soil" treat religion as a fact-of-life, as heard in the temperance of "Drink to Me" and belief of "The Man on the Hill." Cash draws this set of songs more from the land more than the Lord, echoing his early life of family sharecropping ("Five Feet High and Rising" "The Man on the Hill"), along with adventures in the old West ("Clementine" "Hank and Joe and Me"), and songs of mortal end ("The Caretaker" "Don't Step on Mother's Roses" "My Grandfather's Clock").

Cash penned nine of the original twelve tunes, not including the "J. Cash" credited "I Want to Go Home," which is actually the traditional "Sloop John B.". Eleven of the original tracks were recorded in a single day, along with a pair of singles, "I Got Stripes" and "You Dreamer You," both included as bonus tracks on this reissue.

The original album cover art and liner notes are augmented with an informative new essay from Billy Altman, and though the entire disc clocks in at a shade under 30-minutes, the richness of the material (much like the richness of the soil) makes this a must-have for Cash fans.

In those days, Johnny kept the backing music simple, but his style was very effective. This particular album was inspired by the folk revival, including as it did, several traditional songs as well as original songs written by Johnny, mainly based on experiences of growing up in a farming community.

Five feet high and rising was written about some floods in 1937 when Johnny, only five, was too young to appreciate the gravity of the situation, but old enough to retain a deep and lasting impression of wonderment.

Clementine, while based loosely on the traditional song My darling Clementine, is given new lyrics and sounds like a completely different song - it's very amusing. I wanna go home is a cover of a song better known these days as Sloop John B, the title that the Beach boys used when they recorded it.

Old Apache squaw is one of many songs that Johnny has recorded about the people who inhabited America before Columbus discovered it - understandably, given that he has Native American blood in him.

The great speckled bird is a cover of Roy Acuff's classic gospel song. As many of you will know, the tune has also been used for I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes, Wild side of life and It wasn't God who made honky tonk angels.

Although not part of the original album, the inclusion of two of Johnny's country hits from around that time - I got stripes and You dreamer you - is most welcome.

There are many other fine songs on this fascinating album. If you enjoy Johnny's early music, you will love this.

"Songs of Our Soil" is a typical concept album from Cash - fairly short and packed with great songs. My favorites are "Great Speckle Bird," "Drink to Me," and "Five Feet High and Rising." He did a really good job picking these particular songs - they deal with death, family, problems, and caring for the land..thus, "Songs of Our Soil." The bonus tracks are also great, even though "You Dreamer You" is almost exactly the same song as "Oh, What a Dream!" on a different album. But I love all the tracks included, and they are very unusual and interesting. SOOS is a little longer than some of his themed albums, which is good news. So if you like Johnny Cash, or if you like old-fashioned songs about the good ol' days, get "Songs of Our Soil." It will be dollars well spent.

This album features "folk songs" by Johnny Cash. Many of them are traditional folk songs, but there are also original folk songs written by Cash himself, like the classic "Five Feet High and Rising". Most of the songs are very good. I especially like "The Caretaker" and "Old Apache Squaw". It's worth noting that "I Want to Go Home" was later recorded by the Beach Boys as "Sloop John B" (although they didn't base their version on Cash's version). The CD adds two bonus tracks that were recorded at the same session as the album. "I Got Stripes" and "You Dreamer You" are great songs, and became hit singles, but they were left off of the album because they don't really fit the concept of the album. But after all this time, who cares? The CD is improved by their inclusion, so it's nice to have them here.

This CD is enjoyable if you are researching and studying the works of Johnny Cash, (like me, after seeing the movie WALK THE LINE), but I think that more casual fans and listeners will be better off buying one of his hit song collections, like THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY CASH, or 16 BIGGEST HITS. I like SONGS OF THE SOIL, but I am also very interested in (and more patient with) Johnny Cash's lesser known works, which many listeners may not be interested in, at first.

Even with three bonus songs, SONG OF THE SOIL by Johnny Cash, from 1959, as a reissue is still under 30 minutes long. The songs range in length from 1:46 to 2:45 minutes. I am glad that Columbia has kept it in print, but it is probably only of interest to the most serious Johnny Cash fans.

Most of these songs were recorded in a single day, 12 March 1959, (but that is just an interesting fact, and does not reflect in any lesser quality due to the super fast recording session).

This album came two albums after his album called THE FABULOUS JOHNNY CASH, and is more enjoyable and memorable than the songs on that album, though both have now been similarly remastered and reissued with nice CD booklet liner notes. Actually, the Gospel album originally released between these two albums has been given the same reissue treatment, and is superior to both, in my opinion. I listen to HYMNS BY JOHNNY CASH more often than the other two, but that is just because I like the Gospel songs on that CD better than the mostly non-religious songs on FABULOUS or SOIL.

My main reason to buy SONGS OF OUR SOIL was because it was the first time I had seen the bonus song "I Got Stripes" on CD. It is in the WALK THE LINE movie, (sung in Las Vegas when Johnny kicks the stage light and collapses onstage), but it was originally a minor hit single, not on any album, though it was recorded on the same day as 12 of the 14 songs on this SONGS OF OUR SOIL reissue, 12 March 1959. This is a funny song that is also intense, about an idiot convict in jail. I feel I got my money's worth just by getting this song on CD, at last.

This reissue contains a few old photos and reprinted liner notes and updated info, but some info contradicts other info. I suspect that the songwriting credits are incorrect or incomplete, which list "J. Cash" as the sole writer on 10 of the 14 songs, and co-writer on one, and arrangement only on another. So only two songs do NOT list J. Cash as some form of songwriter, yet the liner notes say that there are traditional songs and "SOME" even written by Johnny Cash, himself. Confusing!

The CD incorrectly spells the title for the classic "The Great Speckle(d) Bird," forgetting the "d" in Speckled. This song was a hit for Roy Acuff in 1939, written by a Reverend, and based on Jeremiah 12:9 in the Bible, in a passage where Jeremiah compares his faith using different animals that are standing alone against the rest of the pack. Johnny's version of this song is very enjoyable, but also available on his Gospel CDs. The Bible uses the "d" in the word speckled, and so do many other CDs with this song on it.

"I Want to Go Home" is a West Indies (Jamaica) folk song which most people will recognize by the famous Beach Boys version, correctly titled "Sloop John B." The CD booklet says J. Cash is the sole writer, but it should have said he is just the arranger. Johnny Cash did not write this song all by himself. Johnny Cash bought a mansion in Jamaica in the early 1970's and lived there frequently for decades, among other homes he owned elsewhere.

"Five Feet High and Rising" is a true, autobiographical story written by Johnny Cash, about a flood that happened at the Dyess Colony, Arkansas (shown in the childhood scenes in the movie WALK THE LINE). "The Man on the Hill" is another song about living in the Dyess Colony, about having to get their supplies from the official of the colony, though they only got paid at harvest, once per year, and had to live off of the credit line for the Dyess Colony members. JOHNNY CASH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY (with Patrick Carr) is a great book for new Cash fans, like me, which explains and contrasts many of the scenes in the WALK THE LINE movie, and explains some background on quite a few songs and albums by Johnny Cash.

If you are researching the career of Johnny Cash, then this is a good CD to get, but if you are looking for his most famous hits, then this CD will not please you at all.

I really mean that in a good way. It's like candy because the music is tight - very similar to early Beatle's stuff. Well-crafted, upbeat, hard to hate, 3 minute songs. It's the period right before Johnny got his edge. Here's the medicine: the upbeat music is very deceptive in that it hides some very sad and depressing topics. It's very much a Depression era album.
If you like the outlaw JC, the Don Law produced stuff, you might not like this right off the bat. But it is true Cash.

Songs of Our Soil is one of the best Johnny Cash recordings ever! And, it's hard to find. This is a winner and what a price! Just love it and it was shipped in a timely and well packaged manner.

Funny concept, but he was raosed a farmer and these songs relfect the land. Great album.

The excellent review by P. D. Harris pretty well sums up the musical aspects of this album, first released with 12 tracks in September 1959 on Columbia just over a year after he left Sun Records. So, I'll approach this review from a slightly different perspective.

Later admitting that death was frequently on his mind in this period, the songs chosen by Cash for this album feature someone dying or, as in the case of Old Apache Squaw, about to ("the next white man that sees my face is gonna be a dead white man") goes one line. Even Five Feet High And Rising touches upon death, albeit that of some bees ("the hives are gone"). That, incidentally, was the only track to emerge as a hit single late in the summer of 1959 when it was released as the B-side to I Got Stripes (# 4 Country and # 66 Billboard Pop Hot 100 and included here as a bonus track) and reached # 14 Country/# 76 Hot 100 on Columbia 41427. The other bonus track, You Dreamer You, had been a B-side hit earlier in 1959 (# 13 Country) as the flip of Frankie's Man, Johnny (# 9 Country/# 57 Hot 100) on Columbia 41371.

Other nice features of this CD release are the photos of Johnny in the insert, together with the original LP liner notes (you'll need a magnifying glass to read them) and three new pages of background notes written by noted music critic and historian Billy Altman in 2002.

The accompanying musicians on the original tracks were: guitarists Al Casey and Luther Perkins, bass guitarist Marshall Grant, pianist Marvin Hughes, and drummer Morris Palmer.

Classic Cash in every respect.