Johnny Cash Here Was a Man: The Ultimate Gospel Collection - review of Johnny Cash's new album featuring Belshazzar

Johnny Cash Here Was a Man: The Ultimate Gospel Collection review

Johnny Cash
Here Was a Man: The Ultimate Gospel Collection

:. Genre: Gospel
:. Year: 2007
:. Country: USA
:. Label: Sony
:. Official Site: Johnny Cash

We always picture Johnny Cash, the "Man in Black" and country music's greatest rebel, as consumed by demons throughout his professional and personal life. We tend to forget that he started off trying to record gospel songs when he first met Sam Philips in Memphis. Here Was a Man: The Ultimate Gospel Collection is a gem of a collection of Cash's sacred music recordings for a new generation who approaches his music from the rebel redemption of Nine Inch Nails and Bob Marley covers rather than from a songbook in front of a church pew.

Cash covers classics like "I Was There When It Happened", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)" as well as a song he wrote entitled "Belshazzar". The honky tonk sounds of "The Preacher Said: "Jesus Said" are interspersed with a Billy Graham doling out biblical advice, resulting in what almost sounds like a commercial for Jesus Christ. "How Great Thou Art" calms with its beautiful piano, while "Far Side Banks of Jordan", a duet with June Carter Cash, becomes all the more poignant for those familiar with the "Hurt" video.

Bohemians and Biblical dogmatists will appreciate the folksy "He Turned The Water Into Wine", a spiritually passionate, spare recording whose soulful chorus dovetails nicely Cash's deep vocals.

The man in black becomes a man of the cloth on this new disc—and preaches to the newly converted.

  Anji Milanovic

     Concert Backstage Passes

Johnny Cash
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