Recorded in 1965. Originally released on Columbia Records (C25 838). Includes liner notes by Johnny Cash.
Digitally remastered by Steve Hoffman.
Personnel: Johnny Cash (vocals, guitar); The Carter Family, The Statler Brothers (vocals); Luther Perkins (electric guitar); Bob Johnson (guitar, banjo, lute); Bob Johnson (banjo); Maybelle Carter (autoharp); Charlie McCoy (harmonica); Bill Pursell (piano, harpsichord); James Carter Wilson (piano);
Marshall Grant (bass); W.S. Holland, Michael Kazak (drums); The Anita Kerr Singers (background vocals).
Recorded between 1959 & 1965. Originally released on Columbia (838). Includes liner notes by Johnny Cash, Jonny Whiteside.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Personnel: Johnny Cash (vocals, guitar); Anita Kerr Singers, Carter Family, The Statler Brothers (vocals); Jack Clement (guitar); Luther Perkins (electric guitar); Mother Maybelle Carter (autoharp); Bob Johnson (lute); Bill Pursell (piano, harpsichord); W.S. Holland, Michael N. Kazak (drums).
Audio Mixer: Mark Wilder.
Liner Note Authors: Johnny Cash; Johnny Whiteside.
Recording information: Nashville, TN (08/14/1959-03/23/1965); Sony Music Studios, New York, NY (08/14/1959-03/23/1965).
Author: Johnny Cash.
Photographer: Frank Bez.
Arrangers: Johnny Cash; Tex Ritter.
In preparation for his 1965 album SINGS THE BALLADS OF THE TRUE WEST, Johnny Cash conducted research into America's Old West. The results found him combining his source material with romantic Western folklore to achieve a vision that was hard-hitting, familiar, and historically resonant. According to his liner notes, he also "slept under mesquite bushes and in gullies" and "learned to throw a Bowie knife and kill a jack rabbit at forty yards, not for the sport but because [he] was hungry."
Appropriately, the songs are replete with frontier imagery, and the spare arrangements (even the strings are subdued) make plenty of room for Cash's resonant baritone, giving rise to visions of open plains and boot spurs jangling in the dust. Many of the tunes here became staples in Cash's repertoire, including the plaintive "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" and Shel Silverstein's chilling gallows-pole narrative "25 Minutes to Go." The spoken word passages, including "Hiawatha's Vision," inspired by Henry W. Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha," show Cash at his campfire storyteller best. Of the many fine recordings Cash made for Columbia in the '60s, SINGS THE BALLADS OF THE TRUE WEST is one of his most ambitious and most beloved.
In preparation for his 1965 album SINGS THE BALLADS OF THE TRUE WEST, Johnny Cash conducted research into America's Old West. The results found him combining his source material with romantic Western folklore to achieve a vision that was hard-hitting, familiar, and historically resonant. According to his liner notes, he also "slept under mesquite bushes and in gullies" and "learned to throw a Bowie knife and kill a jack rabbit at forty yards, not for the sport but because [he] was hungry."
Appropriately, the songs are replete with frontier imagery, and the spare arrangements (even the strings are subdued) make plenty of room for Cash's resonant baritone, giving rise to visions of open plains and boot spurs jangling in the dust. Many of the tunes here became staples in Cash's repertoire, including the plaintive "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" and Shel Silverstein's chilling gallows-pole narrative "25 Minutes to Go." The spoken word passages, including "Hiawatha's Vision," inspired by Henry W. Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha," show Cash at his campfire storyteller best. Of the many fine recordings Cash made for Columbia in the '60s, SINGS THE BALLADS OF THE TRUE WEST is one of his most ambitious and most beloved.
One of the projects Johnny Cash wanted to do when he was on Sun Records was to record an album of songs from the Old West. Of course, Sam Phillips wouldn't hear of it, but the idea -- along with concept albums of gospel, train songs, and others -- all came to fruition when he moved to Columbia Records. This concept album is a 20-track set that combines songs and narrations, the bulk of which were recorded in 1965 (the lone exception is Carl Perkins' "The Ballad of Boot Hill," which originates from a 1959 session). The booklet includes Johnny's original liner notes to the album, along with song-by-song comments. One of Cash's best concept albums. [The 2002 CD reissue adds two tracks: the Peter LaFarge song "Rodeo Hand" (recorded at the sessions and eventually issued on a Bear Family import), and a one-minute instrumental alternate take of LaFarge's "Stampede."] ~ Cub Koda minimize