Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash Forever Words Expanded (2020 - Country) [Flac 24-96]



Johnny Cash: Forever Words Review by Mark Deming

In 1986, Johnny Cash's place in country music's pecking order had fallen so low that Columbia Records,
his recording home since 1960, dropped him from their roster, claiming he was no longer marketable.
Given this, perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment of Cash's late-period association with Rick Rubin
and his American Recordings label (beginning with the 1994 album American Recordings) is that the world
was reminded Cash was a major artist whose work was still powerfully relevant.
Among his fans and his peers, respect for Cash had grown tremendously by the time he died in 2003, and
since then, material from his archives has been steadily brought before the public. In 2016, a new
wrinkle was introduced to Cash's posthumous legacy when a collection of his poems and lyrics, previously
unknown, was published in a book titled Forever Words: The Unknown Poems.
Now 16 of the pieces from that book have been set to music by a variety of musicians on an album called
Johnny Cash: Forever Words.
The artists adapting Cash's words range from longtime friends and associates (Kris Kristofferson and
Willie Nelson) and members of the Cash family (Rosanne Cash and Carlene Carter) to contemporary country
and roots music stars (Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves and Brad Paisley) and some relative outliers who
nevertheless respected Cash's vision (John Mellencamp and, in his final recording, Chris Cornell).
While Cash's lyrical voice is strong in these recordings, each artist wrote and arranged their own music
for the songs, and as a consequence this runs all over the stylistic map, from the purist's bluegrass of
Alison Krauss' "The Captain's Daughter" and the dark, moody country rock of Cornell's "You Never Knew My
Mind" to the eccentric orchestral sound of Elvis Costello's "I'll Still Love You." From a musical
standpoint, Forever Words is as much about the musicians and what they see in Cash's words as it is
about the Man in Black's secret life as a poet, and while every track was created with skill and evident
respect to the lyricist, the lack of musical cohesion works against this as an album rather than just
a set of songs.
Johnny Cash: Forever Words has some brilliant moments and is an often-moving tribute to Cash's gifts as
a writer, but as a listening experience, it's unfortunately inconsistent. Maybe some of this was better
left on paper.

Artist...............: Johnny Cash
Album................: Johnny Cash: Forever Words Expanded
Genre................: Country
Source...............: WEBQ
Year.................: 2020
Ripper...............:  &
Codec................: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version..............: reference libFLAC 1.3.3 20190804
Quality..............: Lossless, (avg. compression: 61 %)
Channels.............: Stereo / 96000 HZ / 24 Bit
Tags.................: -
Information..........: Legacy Recordings

Tracklist:

  1. Kris Kristofferson - Forever / I Still Miss Someone    
  2. Ruston Kelly - To June This Morning                    
  3. Brad Paisley - Gold All Over the Ground                
  4. Chris Cornell - You Never Knew My Mind                  
  5. Alison Krauss - The Captain's Daughter                  
  6. T Bone Burnett - Jellico Coal Man                      
  7. Rosanne Cash - The Walking Wounded                      
  8. John Mellencamp - Them Double Blues                    
  9. Jewel - Body On Body                                    
 10. Elvis Costello - I'll Still Love You                    
 11. Carlene Carter - June's Sundown                        
 12. Dailey & Vincent - He Bore It All                      
 13. I'm With Her - Chinky Pin Hill                          
 14. Robert Glasper - Goin', Goin', Gone                    
 15. The Jayhawks - What Would I Dreamer Do?                
 16. Jamey Johnson - Spirit Rider                            
 17. Hard Working Americans - Big Hearted Girl              
 18. Shawn Camp - I'm Comin' Honey                          
 19. Ana Cristina Cash - Brand New Pair of Shoes            
 20. Elvis Costello - If You Love Me                        
 21. John McEuen - Dogs Are In the Woods                    
 22. Marty Stuart - I've Been Around                        
 23. John Popper - Who's Gonna Grease My Skillet?            
 24. Jamey Johnson - California Poem                        
 25. Brandon Robert Young - Little Patch of Grass            

Playing Time.........: 01:31:58
Total Size...........: 1861,11 MB