Johnny Cash's show, on the other hand, was always focused on the music.
Cash at the time was of course one of the biggest names in country music, riding the success of albums like Live At Folsom Prison and a crossover pop and country smash in "A Boy Named Sue." Cash's show emphasized country music to be sure. Filmed every week at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, the show regularly featured Cash's own extended musical family including the Tennessee Three, the Carter Family, and Carl Perkins. Cash also featured the biggest names in country music as guests on his show including everyone from Merle Haggard and George Jones, to Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys.
But Johnny Cash also featured some of the biggest rock and pop music names of the day, including perhaps the biggest of them all on his very first show. Bob Dylan, who had just shocked the music world by releasing the country influenced Nashville Skyline album, rarely performed in public at the time. For the debut of The Johnny Cash Show, Dylan not only performed "I Threw It All Away," but also duetted (in an uncharacteristically clear voice he later attributed to giving up cigarettes) with Cash on "Girl From The North Country."
Among the other musical milestones from The Johnny Cash Show was a scorching guitar jam between Cash, Carl Perkins, and Eric Clapton — backed by Derek and The Dominos — on Perkins' "Matchbox." Clapton is clearly awed to be sandwiched between the other two men sharing center stage, while Cash is his usual gracious self assuring the young British guitar hot-shot that he has their respect. For his own part, Perkins plays like a house on fire.
This incredible two disc set from The Johnny Cash Show includes both of those performances, as well as over 60 others, clocking in at some four hours worth total. As with Dylan and Clapton, several of these are duets with Cash. There is also behind the scenes inside commentary, such as the story of how June Carter Cash pitched a fit when she learned that Linda Ronstadt showed up for her duet with Cash without wearing any panties. Saying "Not with my John she's not," June sent a stagehand to buy Ronstadt a pair of "bloomers", which she then ordered Ronstadt to put on.
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