ellediablo
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Stars lay it on the 'Line'
His music and style very influential
By Mikel Toombs
UNION-TRIBUNE
November 18, 2005
Sony BMGj Music
A young Johnny Cash appeared to be contemplating his future – and what a future it would turn out to be.
Once Johnny Cash walked the line, countless musicians followed in his footsteps.
"I think that any artist would have to say that there's some type of influence from Cash in them. If nothing else, just as an astounding example of believing in yourself and following your path," Australian-born country star Keith Urban said last week from a tour stop in Albany, N.Y. "I think that even when it deviates from the so-called 'righteous path,' if there's a pull to take it, then you have to take it. Because there are lessons to be learned on those roads, too."
"He's a true original," said latter-day musical iconoclast Shelby Lynne, the singer who sought out and won the role of Cash's mother in the new film "Walk the Line," which opens in theaters today. "There's never going to be another one like him."
"The thing I feel now in my life more than anything is, he was fearless," veteran singer-guitarist Marty Stuart said. "He was absolutely fearless. The box office, the chart, nothing came between his heart and his vision. That's the way I've always felt, period. But it's one thing to feel that way and another thing to live that way. He absolutely gave me enough guts and inspiration to live that way."
John R. Cash lived that way since his early days recording taut country like "I Walk the Line" at Sun Studios in the mid-'50s, under the visionary guidance of producer Sam Phillips and alongside future legends Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. He followed his singular path all the way up until his death two years ago, plunging ever deeper into the depths of his soul while creating (with producer Rick Rubin) memorable cover versions of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus."
And as detailed in the recently released boxed set "The Legend" (Columbia/Legacy Records) – it's a handy primer on his career, about as complete as four CDs will allow – Cash explored new avenues while keeping himself rooted in tradition. His train songs spoke to the American myth, and he revered the music of Jimmy Rodgers ("The Singing Brakeman"), Hank Williams and, of course, the Carter Family. June Carter, who co-wrote "Ring of Fire" based on her love for Johnny, would become June Carter Cash and his constant companion as he battled addiction, illness and his inner darkness.
Tellingly, Cash turned his image as The Man in Black into a political statement, championing Native Americans and the downtrodden in general. He made captive audiences of inmates at Folsom Prison and San Quentin, and of all America through his TV variety show.
"I grew up watching Johnny Cash every week on television," singer Travis Tritt, 42, told the Union-Tribune last year. "He would come into my living room and say, 'Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.' That was such a huge part of growing up for me."
Tritt was personally introduced to Cash by longtime friend Marty Stuart, who has perhaps as good an insight into the legend as anybody: Cash "was my next-door neighbor, he's my ex-boss, he's my ex-father-in-law, he's a lot of things to me," Stuart said. "He's from Arkansas, I'm from Mississippi. We were raised the same way. I still stand by the original vision, the original blueprint and design and marching orders for country music."
Long before he came to work for Cash or to marry Cash's daughter, Cindy, Stuart felt the power of the man's music.
"The first two records I ever owned in my life were Flatt & Scruggs' 'Greatest Hits' and 'The Fabulous Johnny Cash.' And those, in truth, are the only two jobs I've ever had, with those bands. And the song that got me was 'Don't Take Your Guns to Town' – and 'Run Softly, Blue River' – off 'The Fabulous Johnny Cash.' The voice got me," said Stuart, 47.
"There was a darkness about him. It was like riding down a Southern river with a lot of fog, and it was too late to turn back now. It's a little scary, but I have to keep going."
Singer and songwriter Rodney Crowell, another onetime son-in-law (he was married to and produced Rosanne Cash), tapped into deep memories when he recorded "I Walk the Line Revisited," with Cash's participation.
"It was a vivid memory of going fishing with my father and grandfather before daylight when I was 5½ years old," Crowell said in a 2001 interview, "hearing that song come out of the dashboard of a borrowed '49 Ford. And at 5½ years old, it just waylaid me. I never forgot the instant I heard that song."
In Stuart's case, Cash's influence seems ever-present. His latest two releases are "Souls' Chapel," an exploration of the church music of the Mississippi Delta that echoes Cash's devotion to gospel music, and "Badlands," a celebration of Native America that was produced with John Carter Cash at the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tenn.
"I fell in love with those people in 1983," Stuart said. "I was in Johnny Cash's band, and he was kind of a missionary for those folks. We went up to play a concert at St. Francis Mission in Pine Ridge, S.D., and I asked, 'Why are we here?' And they said, 'Well, we're in the poorest county in the United States of America.'
"I'm from Mississippi, so I understand poor. But I had never seen anybody that poor, that had just been shoved into the back of nowhere, unplugged from society."
Stuart, who married his current wife, veteran country singer Connie Smith, on the reservation, also remembers when he first joined Cash's band. It was a time, a quarter-century ago, when Cash appeared to be deviating from what Keith Urban would call the "righteous path."
"As far as him personally, he hadn't let up a bit," Stuart said, "but this is 1980. I went in there with my six-guns blazing, thinking I was riding into the camp of a guy who still got out and championed Indians and prisoners, and was a very vocal rogue missionary. And what I found was the hipsters and the pacemakers and the cutting-edge kind of taste-makers, they had kind of signed off on him.
"He was kind of a state-fair act out in the hinterlands. The people we played for were senior citizens or middle-of-the-road, cornfield kind of audiences. And he had a lot of images out there that anybody could buy into, but it seemed to me what was selling at that time was 'patriot Cash.' As long as he was flag-waving and standing for God and country, we had a crowd. Anything to the left or right of that, it just kind of went flat."
That impression remained, Stuart continued, "until we went to Europe. And when we would go to Europe, he was a rock star again. It was rockabillies and it was servicemen, and it was rock 'n' rollers that would come see us. And it had nothing to do with the American persona.
"I remember distinctly telling him one night, 'John, you need to drop the family act and go back to the bare bones.' And he just wasn't in a place to do it."
Stuart recalls being optimistic about Cash's future, even after he departed his band to become a solo artist (he continued to record with Cash until the very end): "I left that camp going, 'This thing is not finished. There will be a second coming, or a third coming.' And 40 years after he's dead, don't count him out then, either. That's the deal."
Today, Stuart is heartened by the hype surrounding the release of "Walk the Line."
"I feel that it's his coming-out party, to go to dead-legend land," he said. "And when that time comes and you go out to where Elvis lives and where Patsy Cline lives and Hank Williams lives – and John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, those kind of figures – it's a perfectly natural place for his body of work to go and become an industry.
"The saddest part about it is I wish he was here to see it. But it makes me happy to know that the work that he did is being regarded in a brand-new way by a brand-new generation, and future generations of people.
"Cowboy Jack Clement had a great comment. He said, 'There's two kinds of people on Earth: those that love Johnny Cash, and those that will.' "
--Mikel Toombs is a Seattle writer--
_______
from the depths or from high heaven...
---johnny is still reelin' 'em in.
His music and style very influential
By Mikel Toombs
UNION-TRIBUNE
November 18, 2005
Sony BMGj Music
A young Johnny Cash appeared to be contemplating his future – and what a future it would turn out to be.
Once Johnny Cash walked the line, countless musicians followed in his footsteps.
"I think that any artist would have to say that there's some type of influence from Cash in them. If nothing else, just as an astounding example of believing in yourself and following your path," Australian-born country star Keith Urban said last week from a tour stop in Albany, N.Y. "I think that even when it deviates from the so-called 'righteous path,' if there's a pull to take it, then you have to take it. Because there are lessons to be learned on those roads, too."
"He's a true original," said latter-day musical iconoclast Shelby Lynne, the singer who sought out and won the role of Cash's mother in the new film "Walk the Line," which opens in theaters today. "There's never going to be another one like him."
"The thing I feel now in my life more than anything is, he was fearless," veteran singer-guitarist Marty Stuart said. "He was absolutely fearless. The box office, the chart, nothing came between his heart and his vision. That's the way I've always felt, period. But it's one thing to feel that way and another thing to live that way. He absolutely gave me enough guts and inspiration to live that way."
John R. Cash lived that way since his early days recording taut country like "I Walk the Line" at Sun Studios in the mid-'50s, under the visionary guidance of producer Sam Phillips and alongside future legends Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. He followed his singular path all the way up until his death two years ago, plunging ever deeper into the depths of his soul while creating (with producer Rick Rubin) memorable cover versions of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus."
And as detailed in the recently released boxed set "The Legend" (Columbia/Legacy Records) – it's a handy primer on his career, about as complete as four CDs will allow – Cash explored new avenues while keeping himself rooted in tradition. His train songs spoke to the American myth, and he revered the music of Jimmy Rodgers ("The Singing Brakeman"), Hank Williams and, of course, the Carter Family. June Carter, who co-wrote "Ring of Fire" based on her love for Johnny, would become June Carter Cash and his constant companion as he battled addiction, illness and his inner darkness.
Tellingly, Cash turned his image as The Man in Black into a political statement, championing Native Americans and the downtrodden in general. He made captive audiences of inmates at Folsom Prison and San Quentin, and of all America through his TV variety show.
"I grew up watching Johnny Cash every week on television," singer Travis Tritt, 42, told the Union-Tribune last year. "He would come into my living room and say, 'Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.' That was such a huge part of growing up for me."
Tritt was personally introduced to Cash by longtime friend Marty Stuart, who has perhaps as good an insight into the legend as anybody: Cash "was my next-door neighbor, he's my ex-boss, he's my ex-father-in-law, he's a lot of things to me," Stuart said. "He's from Arkansas, I'm from Mississippi. We were raised the same way. I still stand by the original vision, the original blueprint and design and marching orders for country music."
Long before he came to work for Cash or to marry Cash's daughter, Cindy, Stuart felt the power of the man's music.
"The first two records I ever owned in my life were Flatt & Scruggs' 'Greatest Hits' and 'The Fabulous Johnny Cash.' And those, in truth, are the only two jobs I've ever had, with those bands. And the song that got me was 'Don't Take Your Guns to Town' – and 'Run Softly, Blue River' – off 'The Fabulous Johnny Cash.' The voice got me," said Stuart, 47.
"There was a darkness about him. It was like riding down a Southern river with a lot of fog, and it was too late to turn back now. It's a little scary, but I have to keep going."
Singer and songwriter Rodney Crowell, another onetime son-in-law (he was married to and produced Rosanne Cash), tapped into deep memories when he recorded "I Walk the Line Revisited," with Cash's participation.
"It was a vivid memory of going fishing with my father and grandfather before daylight when I was 5½ years old," Crowell said in a 2001 interview, "hearing that song come out of the dashboard of a borrowed '49 Ford. And at 5½ years old, it just waylaid me. I never forgot the instant I heard that song."
In Stuart's case, Cash's influence seems ever-present. His latest two releases are "Souls' Chapel," an exploration of the church music of the Mississippi Delta that echoes Cash's devotion to gospel music, and "Badlands," a celebration of Native America that was produced with John Carter Cash at the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tenn.
"I fell in love with those people in 1983," Stuart said. "I was in Johnny Cash's band, and he was kind of a missionary for those folks. We went up to play a concert at St. Francis Mission in Pine Ridge, S.D., and I asked, 'Why are we here?' And they said, 'Well, we're in the poorest county in the United States of America.'
"I'm from Mississippi, so I understand poor. But I had never seen anybody that poor, that had just been shoved into the back of nowhere, unplugged from society."
Stuart, who married his current wife, veteran country singer Connie Smith, on the reservation, also remembers when he first joined Cash's band. It was a time, a quarter-century ago, when Cash appeared to be deviating from what Keith Urban would call the "righteous path."
"As far as him personally, he hadn't let up a bit," Stuart said, "but this is 1980. I went in there with my six-guns blazing, thinking I was riding into the camp of a guy who still got out and championed Indians and prisoners, and was a very vocal rogue missionary. And what I found was the hipsters and the pacemakers and the cutting-edge kind of taste-makers, they had kind of signed off on him.
"He was kind of a state-fair act out in the hinterlands. The people we played for were senior citizens or middle-of-the-road, cornfield kind of audiences. And he had a lot of images out there that anybody could buy into, but it seemed to me what was selling at that time was 'patriot Cash.' As long as he was flag-waving and standing for God and country, we had a crowd. Anything to the left or right of that, it just kind of went flat."
That impression remained, Stuart continued, "until we went to Europe. And when we would go to Europe, he was a rock star again. It was rockabillies and it was servicemen, and it was rock 'n' rollers that would come see us. And it had nothing to do with the American persona.
"I remember distinctly telling him one night, 'John, you need to drop the family act and go back to the bare bones.' And he just wasn't in a place to do it."
Stuart recalls being optimistic about Cash's future, even after he departed his band to become a solo artist (he continued to record with Cash until the very end): "I left that camp going, 'This thing is not finished. There will be a second coming, or a third coming.' And 40 years after he's dead, don't count him out then, either. That's the deal."
Today, Stuart is heartened by the hype surrounding the release of "Walk the Line."
"I feel that it's his coming-out party, to go to dead-legend land," he said. "And when that time comes and you go out to where Elvis lives and where Patsy Cline lives and Hank Williams lives – and John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, those kind of figures – it's a perfectly natural place for his body of work to go and become an industry.
"The saddest part about it is I wish he was here to see it. But it makes me happy to know that the work that he did is being regarded in a brand-new way by a brand-new generation, and future generations of people.
"Cowboy Jack Clement had a great comment. He said, 'There's two kinds of people on Earth: those that love Johnny Cash, and those that will.' "
--Mikel Toombs is a Seattle writer--
_______
from the depths or from high heaven...
---johnny is still reelin' 'em in.
Last edited:
