| Ride This Train - Johnny Cash | |
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Reviewed by Jolene Downs
Ride This Train is another of Johnny Cash's albums that is being re-released from Legacy/Columbia records in honor of Johnny's 70th birthday. This album was first released in 1960. It is also the first album featuring Johnny's now well-known mix of song and narration. There are four bonus tracks on this album that are previously unreleased in the United States. There is a narrative between each of the songs. The concept of this album seems to be about riding a train across the country, and telling a story of the countryside you pass through.
The album starts out with a narration of the early trail blazing across the United States. It talks about displacing the Indians in the push West for land. Then it goes into "Loading Coal," which is a song about life in the coal mines. Tongue in cheek he says, "I'm a double first cousin to a dad blame mole... I'll never get rich for to save my soul."
"Dorraine of Ponchartrain" is a story of a Nova Scotia Arcadian and his love. It is a soul-wrenching ballad of a love found and then lost. Johnny really has the ability to draw you into a song like few others can do.
"Going To Memphis" is a neat song. It features the sound of a chain gang working. The rhythm is fun to listen to. He ended up in jail over a card game, but he is dreaming of going to Memphis while swinging that hammer working to build a levy.
"When Papa Played The Dobro" features the Dobro heavily. He says his papa played the Dobro to ease his troubles as they arose. Each trouble that papa encounters, they "show" how Papa played the Dobro. I like how Johnny features different things in different songs. Another song that features a specific instrument is "Tennessee Flat-Top Box."
"Old Doc Brown" is a story song. It is about an old country doctor that is there to help the town. Often they couldn't pay him, but he continued to help everyone out. One day someone went to get him and he was lying down, but his soul was gone. They looked through is possessions, and couldn't find more than a quarter to his name. When they opened his old ledger, and next to all the people's names that owed him money he had written, "paid in full." The town people chipped in with their resources and gave him a burial befitting the man he was. This is a song that really makes you stop and think about today's concepts of values.
"The Ballad of the Harpweaver" has been unreleased in the United States until now. It is another narrated song. The father has died and the mother is struggling to raise him with nothing. She has nothing in the house to make him new clothes and no food but half a loaf of bread. The only thing in the house is an old family harp, a bed, a table and one good chair. A sick boy dreams of magic cloth being woven from the strings of the old harp. His mother looks young and beautiful and not a day over 18 years old. At the morning's dawn there was a pile of clothes six feet high and just his size.
This is another great album from the legendary Johnny Cash. It is very nice to have some of the older music that has been long out of print available once again.
Song List:
Album cover, used with permission of Legacy Recordings.
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