Strictly speaking this isn\u2019t purely a country music album.\u00a0 Johnny Cash does covers of popular music from from sources varying from modern musicians like Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode to Simon and Garfunkle to the Beatles.\u00a0 But Johnny Cash is a country singer and I liked some of the songs very much so\u2026<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not an enormous Johnny Cash fan.\u00a0 I have several of his albums and like a number of his songs but I don\u2019t love everything he\u2019s done.\u00a0 This album was done in the last year of his life and his voice is frayed by his age and illness.\u00a0 But it is distinctively Johnny Cash and he is able to use the broken quality of his voice to great advantage on several of the more soulful songs. \u00a0It is an interesting experience hearing a man who knows he\u2019s dying singing songs that he has selected to sing before he\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n
The first cut and the subtitle for the album is \u201cThe Man Comes Around.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a song Cash wrote and it\u2019s about Judgement Day.\u00a0 Revelations is quoted at the beginning and end of the song and I find it extremely stirring.\u00a0 I\u2019d say it\u2019s the high point of the album.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll confess I don\u2019t particularly care for his interpretation of most of the recent songs he covered.\u00a0 \u201cHurt,\u201d \u201cPersonal Jesus\u201d and \u201cFirst Time Ever I saw Your Face.\u201d\u00a0 None of these renditions particularly appealed to me.\u00a0 Possibly because the songs themselves don\u2019t particularly appeal to me.\u00a0 \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d and \u201cIn My Life\u201d were better but neither was extraordinary.<\/p>\n
I enjoyed much more his take on the western songs, \u201cI Hung My Head,\u201d \u201dSam Hall,\u201d \u201cDesperado,\u201d and especially \u201cI’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,\u201d and \u201cStreets Of Laredo.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the last song on the album is very interesting.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cWe\u2019ll Meet Again.\u201d\u00a0 Older folks may remember it was a 1939 song and a 1943 movie linked to war-time Britain and the longing that the soldiers and loved ones left behind felt for each other.\u00a0 Johnny Cash is clearly talking about the afterlife and meeting up with loved ones (especially his departed wife).\u00a0 That song is quite effective.<\/p>\n
I guess I would recommend this album to Johnny Cash fans and for fans of country and western music.\u00a0 And I think the song \u201cWhen the Man Comes Around,\u201d will resonate with anyone on the right, living in these apocalyptic times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Strictly speaking this isn\u2019t purely a country music album.\u00a0 Johnny Cash does covers of popular music from from sources varying from modern musicians like Nine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[552,551,237],"tags":[555,1309,1547,1544,1546,232,1548,1545],"class_list":["post-5365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-country-music-reviews","category-music-reviews","category-reviews","tag-country-music","tag-country-music-review","tag-im-so-lonesome-i-could-cry","tag-johnny-cash","tag-sam-hall","tag-streets-of-laredo","tag-well-meet-again","tag-when-the-man-comes-around"],"yoast_head":"\n