Johnny Cash, "Hymns by..."

/ ARTIST: Johnny Cash / TITLE: "Hymns by..." / GENRÉ: Country gospel / LABEL: Legacy / FORMAT: CD /

For a long while, I've been in doubt whether I should review my absolute favorite performers, performers like Johnny Cash and Townes van Zandt. These people were that talented that my words simply wouldn't do them justice.

However, when it comes to Johnny Cash, the man together with Nathan Abshire, that made me discover American people's music, I think there's a lot of revisionism going on. Punks and skinheads, the scene I have belonged to and whose music I still listen to, have claimed him. Even out and out anarchists listen to the late master.

It's easy to see why. When you belong to a subculture as hated as skinheads are, then the outcast anthems of Johnny Cash are well appreciated. I am a labor man myself which I have stated when I reviewed Dock Boggs and although I'm not politically active, nor agitate, I appreciate the songs about social justice that only Johnny Cash could pen.

But, like Dock Boggs, Cash had another side than the social rebel's, he was a Christian. So am I.

Of course, everyone who has seen the Walk the line movie, will know how he started out as a singer of gospel songs and tried to cut a record deal as a gospel singer for Sun records. Which failed.

I have always thought that Cash brought a bit of gospel feeling into his rockabilly and country stuff. On this record, which gathers hymns performed by him between 1958 and 59, one can almost say that he brings a country/rockabilly attitude to his gospel music.

Must've come as a shocker for those who had thought of him only as a rebel. Today, Christianity means being a rebel in a world that has fallen into the sinful depths of fornication and consumption.

True, there are performers of gospel music who are better than Cash, I am thinking primarily of The Louvin Brothers, but Cash brings his Cash-ness to it all.

Of course, Cash's music is timeless and so is the message on this record. Christianity remains, however unpopular it is to say so, the way, life and the truth. The lyrics are thoughtful and not written by someone who wants to cash (no pun intended) in on the gospel scene. They reflect the living faith that mr Cash had on earth, which lead him to his social convictions. He still has this faith today, I'm certain, as he watches over all his fans on earth from Heaven.

I am sure that this little CD is one of the most relevant things Cash ever recorded, some of the tunes being his own, some being written by other and a few timeless classic and this part of his legacy should not be forgotten.

Cash shouldn't be made a rebel that refused to conform to society's norms alone. He had this side to him, true, but it was fed by a stronger conviction than provocation for provocation's sake. It was fed by the conviction that us Christians must make moral choices, love our neighbors and not fall into the trap of conventional sins.

This is one of the records in my collection that I value the most. It's a real gem of a plastic disc.

A perfect record like this get 100% in rate of satisfaction!

Charlie Louvin: "The battles rage on"

This album was released last year and came to be the last record by Charlie Louvin of the famous Louvin Brothers, as Charlie Louvin died this year.

This album is beyond doubt the most important album of this decade. This, not just because he, like he always used to, mentions the "G word" (and no, I ain't thinking of "gangsta") on numerous occasions, but also because he swims against the current and makes a record about war from the soldier's perspective.
It wouldn't be possible to make a record more relevant or timely.

There has been made many a record about war by warmongers, as well as peaceniks, but Charlie Louvin was old enough to have served in the second world war, as well as in the Korean war. he knows what he's singing about

This record is a declaration of love for everything even us non-Americans hold dear in the USA, while he simultaneously sings in one song that no soldier wants to go to war, but that there are some things worth dying for and I, for one, agree with Louvin on that. As does the Gospel, our Lord clearly states that no one has greater love than someone who dies for his friends.

Musically, this record bears, in my opinion, traits of bluegrass, but over all, it sounds very much like the good old country music we love. Although Hank Williams sr might have had issues with some of the lyrics, he would certainly have loved the music. There are also some gospel music influences in it.

I have previously only listened to the material of the Louvin Brothers from back in the 50's, so it was something of a shocker to hear Charlie's voice like this, 50 years later. You can still recognise it and love it, despite the treatment it has been given by age, the cancer he died from, as well as the cigarette he smokes on the cover. You just wish Ira hadn't died all those years ago, so that he could have been included on this record, because the harmonies they could sing were out of this world and you really come to think of Ira when you hear Charlie.

Charlie Louvin might not be the best lyricist country or gospel music ever produced, so he has picked a few numbers by other musicians, as well as a few from his past in the Louvin Brothers. But he does make them all justice.

The most important album of the decade gets 100% in level of satisfaction!