REVIEW: Johnny Cash: The Legend Disc 4 of 4 - Family and Friends - Page 2

The entire Carter clan, from the very beginning, must have rooted in him a strong sense of strong music; and nurtured and protected a talent he might otherwise have tossed away with the empty amphetamine packets.

Part of that family was his Christianity. That's sure hard to reconcile with the shear pleasure and anger he puts into some of his other songs, including many tales of killing women and men.

But those are, after all, just songs.

It doesn't do any good to wonder why Cash - eventually - had such a Christian belief. He did and that's that. And it translates well to music. "Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)", "Far Side Banks Of Jordan", "You Can't Beat Jesus Christ" are here and he has many gospel albums and renditions throughout his career. Either he or The Carter Family has dibs on the definitive version of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." They may not be his most memorable pieces but I'm guessing a lot of people are thankful for his stone-breaking "tower of power" voice in between the Amy Grants and Kingsmen of the genre.

Bob Dylan comes off badly, again; here with a Gomer Pyle quality to his voice on "Girl From the North Country." It's a great song, but only when Cash's voice is somewhere present. Dylan alone on this song - and I don't mean to imply he can't sing - would be a failure. If this was a song designed to pit two men against each other - like McCartney and Jackson on "The Girl Is Mine" - or the Devil and ole Charlie Daniels - then the contrast would work much better.

This "fact" is especially true when "One More Ride" comes next (and Billy Joe Shaver on the new-to-the-world, "You Can't Beat Jesus Christ" after that) and Marty Stuart and he sing as one. It sounds much smoother; more right.

Throughout the disc are amazing songs: "Highwayman," with Kris Kristofferson, Willie and Waylon, "The Night Hank Williams Came To Town" and Rodney Crowell's 1998, "I Walk The Line Revisited" which does something even rarer then when it happens in film - it's a sequal that equals the quality of the original. Crowell is talking about the influence of the song in his life - and Cash is right along there echoing the words from 42 years before.

A slight detour here to note that not too many cover versions of Johnny Cash's materials exist because, really, who's going to have that voice? It's like trying to force lightning to hit the same space twice; it happens, but rarely. Still, The Reverend Horton Heat had the nads to cover "Folsom Prison Blues" and Los Lonely Boys performed a classic pump-up of "I Walk The Line." Social Distortion did a too-easy, by-the-numbers disservice to "Ring of Fire" and also Michelle Shocked covered, "One Piece At A Time" which seems a strange pick but a perfect voice fit, reminiscent of Cash's own open, honest voice.

Article Author: Temple Stark

A graphic designing wordsmith, with a decade-plus career in community journalism behind me. Take a mean photo, have a new camera, and have been riding the wave of Twitter for more than a year.

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