I grew up in East Tennessee and listening to country music was de rigueur, except for those of us who came of age during rock and roll. Dolly may have lived for much of her life just a few miles down the road, and Nashville may have been a big, important city in the middle of the state, and I may have well known the names of Porter, Johnny, Loretta, George, and the other kings and queens of country, but it was not cool to listen to them; just the way it wasn’t cool to go see wrestling or stock car racing.
Now in the way that both NASCAR and wrestling have fans all over the political and social map, country music has made huge inroads into audiences who wouldn’t have given it a listen before. And while I still don’t enjoy either car racing or wrestling (amateur or pro), over the past dozen or so years I have rediscovered the wondrous music of Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, George Jones, and Johnny Cash, to name a few, and have more newly discovered some younger country artists that I truly like: Josh Turner, Taylor Swift, Julie Roberts, and Keith Urban, for example.
I have also come to embrace lots of new music over the years, some with the help of my teenaged children, some on my own, and, although it may surprise many, I actually like a lot of hip hop music.
So it was with great curiosity that I sat down to listen to Johnny Cash Remixed, an album that features hip hop and rap artists doing their own things to The Man.
The album is frankly a disappointment. There are only a handful of songs that really do anything interesting with Cash’s music, that really take it to another level, or overlay it with fun and new lyrics or change it up at all. The rest just seem to rehash Cash in not very creative ways. If all of the songs had been as good as QDT Muzic and Snoop Dog’s version of "I Walk the Line" or The Heavy’s "Doing’ My Time," or Machine Drum’s "Belshazzar" this might have been one fine album. Part of "Lonely Hearts" by the Midnight Juggernauts is not too bad. "Straight A’s in Love" by Troublemaker starts out okay, But "Big River" is boring. "Folsom Prison Blues" doesn’t even begin to touch the original, nor does it add to it. Neither does "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow."
Article comments
1 - Vaughn
Your review is kind. There have been some great remix tributes produced for various artists and genres, but this ain't one fo them. Shame on the Cash estate for allowing this to be released. Johnny and June must be spinning like tops.
2 - Lisa Solod Warren
Gee, that was a kind review? I, too, am stunned taht the Cash family bought into this. Although I do like the Snoop Dog cut. That's it, though.