Johnny Cash – Cash Ultimate Gospel

Cash Considered Gospel Music His True Calling

Throughout his career, Johnny Cash became known for recording songs with lyrics dealing with the harsher realities of life such as alcohol, death and drugs. However, he first and foremost considered himself a gospel singer and that is how he presented himself upon his first meeting with Sun Record exec Sam Phillips. He played Phillips a song that he had written himself called "Belshazzar." Phillips told him they couldn't sell gospel albums. Not to be deterred from his dream, Cash called Phillips a couple of weeks later and told him he'd like to sing him a couple more songs – rock this time. And the rest is history. Throughout his long and very successful career Cash never lost his gospel roots, recording several gospel albums. Many of his mainstream albums also had a gospel number or two included as well. In the liner notes for the album God , Bono wrote of Cash, "He doesn't sing for the damned, he sings with the damned." And that so well describes the type of gospel Cash performed. He didn't preach in his music, but instead he told his story for people to do with as they chose. That approach to the spreading of the Word made him and his message very popular with some of the hardest core population of Cash fans and that was the population that possibly needed the message the most. He appealed just as much to the general fan population because he laid his life on the line with no apologies and used his life mistakes to try and help others choose a different path.

The Music

This is a Legacy and Sony BMG release of a collection of gospel tunes recorded by Johnny Cash over the span of his career. Much of it was on albums that are no longer in print and very hard to find. There are also three songs on the 24 track album that were previously unreleased. "It Is No Secret (What God Can Do)," "My Ship Will Sail" and "How Great Thou Art." In many of the songs you can hear what appears to be The Carter Family doing background vocals, but that is only confirmed in the liner notes for a few of the songs, but speculated on others. While the hard driving rhythms defined mainstream Cash music on the whole, he seemed to prefer the reflective tone for his gospel recording. He was also fond of the spoken story/song format for a few of his songs and one of those songs is included on this album. "Here Was a Man" tells the story of Jesus in a language that simplifies it into language that everyone can relate to. It was recorded live in Nashville in 1970. The Johnny Cash family and the Billy Graham family shared a long time friendship. In 1971, Graham made a vocal appearance on the song "The Preacher Said 'Jesus Said'" by reciting a scripture verse when Cash sang the line "And Jesus Said." It was very well done. Other favorite songs on here are "The Great Speckled Bird," "How Great Thou Art," "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord," "Amazing Grace," "Daddy Sang Bass" and "Children Go Where I Send Thee." All of the songs are excellent and well chosen for this project. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys gospel music.