I like Johnny Cash’s songs. Because he’s not trying to cover up. Writes real stuff.
~Bob Dylan (Izzy Young’s Notebooks – Oct 1961)
Shown as part of The Johnny Cash tribute show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City 6 April 1999.
Hey Johnny, I wanna say Hi and I’m sorry we can’t be there, but that’s just the way it is. I wanna sing you one of your songs about trains. I used to sing this song before I ever wrote a song and I also wanna thank you for standing up for me way back when.
Musicians:
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
Larry Campbell (guitar)
Tony Garnier (bass)
David Kemper (drums & percussion)
Released on Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash, Lucky Dog CK86310, 24 September 2002.
And here is a early live version from Johnny Cash:
This is our eighth song in the Unreleased series, I Witnessed a Crime sung by Johnny Cash. Written by Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) and he also does some nice electric guitar on the track.
It is taken from the bootleg American Outtakes with songs recorded in Rick Rubin’s living room in 1993.
His late years were spent under the umbrella of Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label, and with Rick at the helm, Johnny recorded some of his finest material to date. From 1993 until his death in 2003, Johnny recorded a boatload of material, and, to date, his label has released American Recordings (1994), Unchained (1996), American III: Solitary Man (2000), American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002), Unearthed (2003), American V: A Hundred Highways (2006), and American VI: Ain’t No Grave (2010).
These outtakes are all similar to the original American sessions, with Johnny Cash singing with just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment. The exact date for this session was 5/17-20/1993.
…Always, the choice of material is a revelation. The Beast In Me (written by former son-in-law, Nick Lowe) could be autobiographical. And while writers like horrorpunk figurehead Glenn Danzig or Tom Waits probably would never have figured on his radar were it not for Rubin; time and again the duo found songs that were, in Cash’s hands, to take on new life. This willingness to experiment was to set a precedent: Subsequent albums were to see him work magic on material from Nine Inch Nails to U2 and Depeche Mode. But Johnny Cash’s final road to redemption and artistic fulfillment starts here…
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)
American Recordings did something very important — it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he’d been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)
#1 – Delia’s Gone
Wikipedia:
Released
April 26, 1994
Recorded
May 17, 1993 – December 7, 1993
Genre
Country, country folk, americana, folk rock
Length
42:45
Label
American/ Sony
Producer
Rick Rubin
American Recordings is the 81st album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in April 1994, the first album issued by American Recordings after its name change from Def American, the album being named after the new label. In 2003, the album was ranked number 364 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin’s American Recordings label, better known for rap and heavy metal than for country music. Under Rubin’s supervision, he recorded the album in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. For years Cash was often at odds with his producers after he had discovered with his first producer, Sam Phillips, that his voice was better suited to a stripped-down musical style. Most famously he disagreed with Jack Clement over his sound, Clement having tried to give Cash’s songs a “twangy” feel and to add strings and barbershop-quartet-style singers. His successful collaboration with Rick Rubin was in part due to Rubin seeking a minimalist sound for his songs.
#3 – The Beast In Me:
The songs “Tennessee Stud” and “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” were recorded live at the Viper Room, a Sunset Strip, Los Angeles nightclub owned at the time by Johnny Depp. “The Beast in Me” was written and originally recorded by Cash’s former stepson-in-law Nick Lowe.
The video for the first single, the traditional song “Delia’s Gone” (directed by Anton Corbijn, featuring Kate Moss), was put into rotation on MTV, and even appeared on Beavis and Butt-head, Beavis asking if Cash was Captain Kangaroo. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be Cash’s finest album since the late 1960s, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as Tom Waits and Glenn Danzig (who penned a song called “Thirteen” specifically for Cash, in just twenty minutes) helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards. The album cover was photographed whilst Cash was visiting Australia, at Werribee near Melbourne.
Johhny Cash & Rick Rubin in studio
#5 – Why Me Lord:
Track listing:
“Delia’s Gone” (Karl Silbersdorf, Dick Toops) – 2:18
Originally recorded by Cash for The Sound of Johnny Cash (1962)
“Let the Train Blow the Whistle” (Cash) – 2:15
“The Beast in Me” (Nick Lowe) – 2:45
Originally recorded by Lowe for The Impossible Bird (1994)
“Drive On” (Cash) – 2:23
“Why Me Lord” (Kris Kristofferson) – 2:20
Originally recorded by Kristofferson for Jesus Was a Capricorn (1972)
“Thirteen” (edit) (Glenn Danzig) – 2:29
Full-length version appears on Disc 5 of the Unearthed Box Set. Written by Glenn Danzig for Cash. Later recorded by Danzig for Danzig 6:66 Satan’s Child (1999)
“Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy’s Prayer)” (John Lomax, Alan Lomax, Roy Rogers, Tim Spencer) – 3:52
Originally recorded by Cash for Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965)
“Bird on a Wire” (Leonard Cohen) – 4:01
Originally recorded by Cohen for Songs from a Room (1969)
“Tennessee Stud” (live) (Jimmy Driftwood) – 2:54
Originally a hit single for Eddy Arnold (1959)
“Down There by the Train” (Tom Waits) – 5:34
Written by Waits for Cash. Later released by Waits on his Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards rarities collection.
“Redemption” (Cash) – 3:03
“Like a Soldier” (Cash) – 2:50
“The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” (live) (Loudon Wainwright) – 5:03
Originally recorded by Wainwright for Attempted Mustache (1973)
Personnel:
Rick Rubin – producer
Johnny Cash – acoustic guitar, vocals, main performer, liner notes
The country is making a big mistake not teaching kids to cook and raise a garden and build fires.
~Loretta Lynn
I didn’t know how babies were made until I was pregnant with my fourth child.
~Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is one of the classic country singers. During the ’60s and ’70s, she ruled the charts, racking up over 70 hits as a solo artist and a duet partner. Lynn helped forge the way for strong, independent women in country music.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)
Johnny Cash inducts Loretta Lynn into the Country Music Hall of Fame:
Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (live):
Wikipedia:
Birth name
Loretta Webb
Also known as
The Coal Miner’s Daughter
The First Lady of Country Music
The Decca Doll
The Queen of Country Music
Born
April 14, 1932 (age 81)
Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, USA
Genres
Country, honky-tonk, gospel
Occupations
Singer-songwriter, author
Instruments
Vocals, guitar
Years active
1960–present
Loretta Lynn (Born Loretta Webb April 14, 1932) is an American country-music singer-songwriter and author born in Butcher Hollow, near Paintsville, Kentucky, USA, to a coal-miner father. At the age of 15 she married, and soon she became pregnant. She moved to Washington state with her husband, Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. (1926–1996), nicknamed “Doo”. Their marriage was tumultuous; he had affairs, and she was headstrong; their life together helped to inspire her music.
On their 6 year anniversary, at the age of 21, (1953), Lynn’s husband bought her a $17 Harmony guitar. She taught herself to play and when she was 24, on her wedding anniversary, he encouraged her to become a singer. She worked to improve her guitar playing, started singing at the Delta Grange Hall in Washington state with the Pen Brothers’ band, The Westerners, then eventually cut her first record (Honky Tonk Girl) in February 1960. She became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960s, and in 1967 charted her first of 16 number-one hits (out of 70 charted songs as a solo artist and a duet partner) that include “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”, “You Ain’t Woman Enough”, “Fist City”, and “Coal Miner’s Daughter”.
One’s on the way (live):
She focused on blue collar women’s issues with themes about philandering husbands and persistent mistresses, and pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music by singing about birth control (“The Pill”), repeated childbirth (“One’s on the Way”), double standards for men and women (“Rated “X”"), and being widowed by the draft during the Vietnam War (“Dear Uncle Sam”). Country music radio stations often refused to play her songs. Banning 9 of her song. But Loretta pushed on to become “The First Lady of Country Music”. Her best-selling 1976 autobiography book was made into an Academy Award-winning film, Coal Miner’s Daughter, starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones, in 1980. Her most recent album, Van Lear Rose, was released in 2004, produced by Jack White, and topped the country album charts. Loretta has received numerous awards in country and American music. For over 50 years Loretta has been performing and was honored in 2010 at the Country Music Awards for her stellar career. Loretta has been a member of The Grand Ole Opry for 50 years since joining on September 25, 1962.
Honors & Awards
Lynn has written over 160 songs and released 60 albums
She has had ten Number 1 albums and sixteen Number 1 singles on the country charts
Lynn has won dozens of awards from many different institutions, including four Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, twelve Academy of Country Music, eight Country Music Association and twenty-six fan voted Music City News awards
She was the first woman in country music to receive a certified gold album for 1967′s “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”.
In 1972, Lynn was the first woman named “Entertainer of the Year” by the Country Music Association, and is one of six women to have received CMA’s highest award
In 1980 she was the only woman to be named “Artist of the Decade” for the 1970s by the Academy of Country Music
Lynn was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999
She was also the recipient of Kennedy Center Honors a award givin by the President in 2003
Lynn is also ranked 65th on VH1′s 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll
She was the first female country artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977
In 1995 she received the country music pioneer award
You’re Looking At Country – Legends In Concert (44min):
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We give credit to artists when we can find the source.
1. Visions Of Johanna
2. Like A Rolling Stone
3. Tangled Up in Blue
4. Ballad Of A Thin Man
5. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
6. Blind Willie McTell (electric version)
7. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
8. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
9. Desolation Row
10. Idiot Wind (New York version)
