Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash with His Hot & Blue Guitar (1957) A– r

Sings the Songs That Made Him Famous (1958) A– r

At Folsom Prison (1968) B

At San Quentin (1969) B+

The Sun Years (1990) A+

American Recordings (1994) B

Unchained (1996) B

American III: Solitary Man (2000) B+

American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002) A

The Legend (2005) A+

1. Ring of Fire
2. I Walk the Line
3. Man in Black
4. Highway Patrolman
5. The Man Comes Around
6. Train of Love
7. 25 Minutes to Go
8. Get Rhythm
9. Folsom Prison Blues (live)
10. Hurt
11. Guess Things Happen That Way
12. Delia's Gone
13. Folsom Prison Blues
14. The Legend of John Henry's Hammer
15. The Ballad of Ira Hayes
16. Singin' in Vietnam Talkin' Blues
17. Come in Stranger
18. The Gettysburg Address
19. Oney
20. Rock Island Line
21. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
22. A Boy Named Sue (live)
23. I Got Stripes
24. Ballad of a Teenage Queen
25. I Hung My Head
26. Daddy Sang Bass
27. Nobody
28. Hey Porter
29. Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)

If you like Joaquin Phoenix singing Cash, you'll love Cash singing Cash. The easiest point of entry is through his Sun recordings from the Fifties, e.g. The Sun Years. You could argue that at this point he's sui generis, or you could say he's inventing folk rock. The next forty-something years of his career are inconsistent -- unlike George Jones, he needed strong material, and he dried up after his classic summation "Man in Black":

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,

Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,

But is there because he's a victim of the times.

The recent 4CD The Legend organises the good stuff as well as anything has. His final studio album was his best: American IV: The Man Comes Around leads with prophecy worthy of Revelations, follows that with "Hurt" and then saunters through the songs he felt he had to take one more shot at while he still could. The culmination: with friends and family, "We'll Meet Again".

Links

Christgau review of The Legend (and the June Carter Cash double)