Restored Original Tape Brings Cash To Your 'Table
you're as in Sam's Sun studio on this record as you'll ever be on any—and why would you not want to be?
Johnny Cash's recording career begins here in Sam Phillips' Sun Studios on this record originally released October, 1957 and ends with his American Recordings series of six albums produced by Rick Rubin between 1994 and 2010. This one featuring "I Walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues" and the Rubin produced albums, are essential. In between were recordings and performances of varying quality on Columbia and Mercury. If you're only going to have one, this would be it.
The restored tape's sound in a word is "tactile". Every seemingly simple note guitarist Luther Perkins struck is both singular and monumental in timing and touch. The kiss of slapback echo Sam Phillips put behind Cash's voice, which annotator Colin Escott describes as a "halo" and as "the richness of a concert hall offset by the sibilance and slight distortion of a honky tonk PA system" has been perfectly capture and delivered by Kevin Gray's cut. And of course Cash's voice in front of the echo effect has a staggering immediacy that will keep you seated and tuned in.
Add an outstanding Stoughton Printing jacket an and outstanding Gotta Groove 45rpm 180g pressing you have a fully restored mid '50s artifact that with proper care will endure for at least another century.
Great records are often described as "time machines". This is one that belongs in every collection of American music.
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