Bottom Line:
There are a lot of great Johnny Cash collections available now, and they're to be found in a lot of places. Now the Cracker Barrel Restaurant chain has joined with other food chains in delivering special collections of music with their continued series of American Music Legends. This second Johnny Cash volume takes ten of Cash's most beloved hits and puts them together in a nice, tight package that sounds great and looks pretty good, too.
I have to assume that this "Volume Two" of "American Music Legends" is only the second volume of Johnny Cash available, as Cracker Barrel has a good selection of legends available in their store, including Hank Williams, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison, John Denver, and Patsy Cline. This Johnny Cash one is a pretty cracking good set. If you have to choose only ten Cash songs to put on one disk, these really would be that ten. From the superior live version of "Folsom Prison Blues" (from the Live at Folsom Prison album) to signature song "Man in Black," this collection covers that pinnacle of Cash's popular career, with Grammy-winning "Jackson," the duet with June Carter Cash; "Daddy Sang Bass," sung with the Statlers and the Carter Sisters; humorous "One Piece At A Time"; and the Shel Silverstein novelty classic, "A Boy Named Sue." Of course, it's hard to top Johnny Cash, especially when you're talking about some of his biggest hits. What is hard is coming up with new things to say about a topic that's been heavily discussed in the last three years.
We've had box sets, essential sets, legendary collections; many of them containing the same cluster of songs (which is a crime, considering the size of Cash's catalog). Of course, there's nothing wrong with continuing to honor Cash's memory. The Man in Black looms large in the history of American music, and not just because he was a tall man! Cash vies with Hank Williams on every "most important men in country music" list you can think of, and it all depends on who authors the list as to which lands at #1. So it's really no wonder Cracker Barrel has chosen Cash to release on their special in-store label (and I have no idea what was on volume one). Cracker Barrel has gone through some hiring policy changes lately which allowed me to review this disc without swallowing my tongue - which makes me very happy for many reasons, the most important here because it means I can heartily recommend going to their restaurant or buying from their online store, because they do know how to put together a really good CD.
Song List:
- Folsom Prison Blues (live)
- Jackson with June Carter
- Understand Your Man
- Daddy Sang Bass with The Statler Brothers
- A Boy Named Sue (live)
- Ring of Fire
- One Piece at a Time
- Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
- Five Feet High and Risin’
- Man in Black
