Personnel includes: Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, The Carter Family, Waylon Jennings, Charlie McCoy, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Boots Randolph.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Australian-issued anthology has 40 songs.
Johnny Cash's impact on country (not to mention rockabilly) is inestimable. With his cavernous baritone, boom-chicka beat and simple, heartfelt songcraft he fashioned what is arguably the most distinctive sound in all of country music. By the end of the 1990s, with a drastic reduction of output due to illness, it began to look like Cash had reached the September of his years. In that context, this two-disc '99 compilation is made all the more poignant.
MAN IN BLACK (not to be confused with the German Cash box set series of the same name) covers the vast range of Cash's career. It moves from the rowdy outlaw country of "Folsom Prison Blues" to the contemplative, Kristofferson-penned "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and the heartbreaking ballad "I Still Miss Someone." An artist with such a long, rich career can never be definitively anthologized with just one release, but THE MAN IN BLACK does a fine job of trying. minimize