Johnny Cash Albums (86)
'The Legendary Performance'
Release Date 1/1/2008
Tracks 16
Label Entertain Me
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Ring of Fire: Live San Antonio 1974'
Release Date 1/1/2008
Tracks 14
Label Entertain Me
See Album Tracklist and Review
'A Pair of Brothers'
Release Date 7/20/2004
Tracks 10
Label K-Tel Entertainment
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Country Legend, Vol. 2'
Release Date 1/1/2004
Tracks 12
Label Madacy
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Country Legend, Vol. 1'
Release Date 1/1/2004
Tracks 13
Label Madacy
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Get Rhythm & Life Goes On'
Release Date 11/25/2003
Tracks 28
Label Dynamic (Emp520)
See Album Tracklist and Review
'A Concert: Behind Prison Walls'
Release Date 9/23/2003
Tracks 16
Label Eagle
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Since two of the defining albums of Johnny Cash's career were live sets recorded during prison concerts -- Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and Johnny Cash at San Quentin -- it is hard to imagine a fan of the Man in Black not picking up this disc with high interest and reasonable expectations, but listeners should be aware that A Concert: Behind Prison Walls is a very different kettle of fish than Cash's earlier jailhouse sessions. While the Folsom Prison and San Quentin albums sounded as if Cash was performing for the prisoners like no one else in the world was listening and with an air of total communication between artist and audience, this set was recorded in 1976 at Nashville's Tennessee State Penitentiary for a television special and is a bit differet. The circumstances find Cash in more subdued form, though he never sounds less than committed, especially on "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and "Jacob Green." (This show also features Cash's '70s road band, which is a good deal slicker than the flinty report of the combo on Folsom Prison.) But most significantly, Cash only appears on seven of this album's 16 tracks. The remainder of the album was taken up by his televised "special guests," including Linda Ronstadt (who sounds fine, though one wonders if this was the best audience for either "You're No Good" or "Desperado"), Roy Clark (who sings "That Honeymoon Feeling," no matter what the liner notes say, and it is some sort of landmark in bathetic Nash-Vegas sludge), and comic Foster Brooks (who not only does his famous drunk bit but sings an unnerving sub-Robert Goulet interpretation of "Half As Much"). The television announcer's introductions have also been kept in to remind listeners just what the source for this material was, and this ultimately sounds just as bold and challenging as a television special from the mid-'70s -- which is to say that outside of 17-and-a-half minutes of Cash singing with his typical strength and authority, this doesn't merit a re-run. Spin the first three and last four tracks and leave the rest behind. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'American IV: The Man Comes Around'
Release Date 11/5/2002
Tracks 15
Label American
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Johnny Cash's fourth project with producer Rick Rubin continues on the same path as many of their previous releases: Cash's warm and rumbling baritone over minimal production and gentle duets with some surprising guests. One of the things that sets American IV: The Man Comes Around apart from the others is Cash's song selections. The success he experienced with his previous interpretations of contemporary songwriters (Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage," Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat") is applied to this album with varying degrees of success. His throaty reading of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" easily fits into his "Man in Black" persona, and the spiritual conviction underlying Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" is certainly powerful. Unfortunately, the inclusion of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (featuring a lost-sounding Fiona Apple) and a passionless snooze through the Beatles' "In My Life" should have been so much stronger (given the subject matter of both songs and Cash's prolific life story). One of the reasons his previous covers were so successful is that in the past he had chosen some pretty obscure songs (Bonnie Prince Billy's "I See a Darkness" and Beck's "Rowboat," to name a couple) and reinterpreted them with his unique perspective and unmistakable voice. However, there is really no need to hear his versions of the Irish standard "Danny Boy" or the clunky rendition of Sting's "I Hung My Head," since something about them just doesn't fit -- either Cash wasn't entirely comfortable with the song or the performance was never fully realized. Luckily, the new songs Cash wrote for the album are pretty strong, and his cover of the standard "We'll Meet Again" is among the best versions of the song ever recorded. It is a relief to hear that, although Cash's voice is clearly older and not the booming powerhouse it was in the earlier Sun and Columbia days, he's still got some punch left in him, and the wisdom he's gained in his later life seeps through between the grooves, revealing a man who has lived through it all and lived to tell the tale. ~ Zac Johnson, All Music Guide
