Johnny Cash is one of my musical heroes. He led quite a life and left behind a bunch of wonderful songs.
I consider him a man of great integrity who really knew how to sing about the life of the underdog. I like him for some of the same reasons I like Steve Earle and Billy Bragg — they say what they think and do not pull punches.
He also left behind some underwhelming concert films, which I have been watching lately.
A few months ago I had the idea of doing some preparation work for reviewing Walk the Line, when it came out on DVD.
I knew that Netflix had a few concert films by him so I decided to rent those. Bad idea.
I had listened to his two excellent live albums — Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison and Johnny Cash At San Quentin — but I could not find versions of those concerts.
So instead, I watched and reviewed these:
Johnny Cash - Live from Austin TX
This is one of the best of the bunch, I think, because it is the most recent. You can see how he has aged physically but remains as giving to the audience and grateful for their support as when he was singing the same songs 25 years earlier.
As with the rest of this bunch, there are no extras, no special features, beyond the concert itself. I was disappointed about that.
I give it an 8.
Johnny Cash: Live at Montreaux (1994)
The highlight of this concert is having his wife, June Carter Cash, and son, John Carter Cash, join him in singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," the great song originally sung by the Carter Family.
There is also a a quick but moving aside where Cash tells the audience how he stole the drummer Carl Perkins used when he sang "Blue Suede Shoes," and the drummer is still with him today. The drummer bows.
Article comments
1 - Scott Butki
I can't wait to see Walk the Line.I'll review it too.
2 - Scott Butki
No other Cash fans?
3 - Keeper
Johnny?! He's my idol!!!! I am one of his 2000+ fans!!!!! I can't wait to watch Walk The Line!!! I cryed my eyes out when he died!! I even just recently got a Cash cd.
4 - Scott Butki
Gypsyman has a great B.C. piece on Cash here.
I was just writing this there:
Heck, listen to the song where he explains why he is the man in black - it's sort of like Tom Joad,
as long as there is suffering he'll wear black.
That in itself is a cool political statement.
There were many fans of Cash who loved him way before the movie and his covers of artists came along and I'm one of them.
I was late to country - maybe 10 years ago- but one guy I always really liked and even bought his autobiography was Johnny Cash.
And it's funny- when I talk to people and they ask
if I like country I'll say not really except
for like Johnny Cash and Steve Earle.
And the people will amend their "I don't like country" comments to include those two exceptions
5 - Scott Butki
I finally saw Walk The Line and I am, in a word, disappointed.
In two words "sadly underwhelmed."
I have to agree with those who said the movie couldn't come close to capturing his full life but I'm frustrated that they didn't seem to even try.
This movie pretty much stopped as soon as June agreed to marry him.
The part of his life I wanted to know about came during that next 20 years, not the 20 years before it.
If they can make Ray Charles life fit into a movie, why didn't they try to do that with Cash?
Right now I'm thinking that video, Hurt, did a better job covering his life than this movie did.
Sure the acting is good but this isn't really capturing who Cash is.