country

Record #750: Chris Stapleton – Traveller (2015)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There is a common thread in the world of musical appreciation that people will write off Country music with absolute prejudice.

Admittedly, much of it is deserved: the genre has been dominated by watered-down Southern twanged pop music for the last few decades. I don’t blame anyone for hearing Rascall Flatts or Keith Urban and wanting nothing to do with it.

But the songs topping the country charts are a poor representation of the genre—which is itself deep and rich, full of tragic storytelling, wonderful musicianship, and skillful songwriting.

Ever since catching his incredible SNL performance of “Parachute,” Chris Stapleton has been my prescription for anyone who dismisses country music wholesale. And so far, that treatment has a 100% success rate.

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Record #745: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – Reunions (2020)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Country music gets a bad rap. Admittedly, much of the vitriol is deserved, especially in the sanitized, cookie-cutter blandification of the Nashville-churned pop country that has come to dominate the genre.

But even the most scathing and accurate criticisms of country music fall flat in the face of Jason Isbell.

When I was first introduced to Isbell, I heard someone call him “your favorite songwriter’s favorite songwriter.” His prowess was likened to legends like John Prine and Bob Dylan. Those are impossibly high standards, but his 2020 album Reunions somehow lives up to them.

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Record #723: Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There are precious few figures in pop music history who can truly be called Icons: singular performers who are without peer. Artists like David Bowie, The Beatles, or Miles Davis, whose legacies overshadow all contemporaries and transcend generations.

There is no mistaking that Johnny Cash is one of these artists. But one of the biggest reasons his legacy survived as well as it did was his late-career partnership with producer Rick Rubin, who cut his teeth working with hip hop and metal acts like the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and Slayer. On paper, the two seem like the strangest bedfellows you could put together. But throughout the American Recordings series, Rubin demonstrated a keen instinct for bringing Cash’s ragged performances to life.

While all of the albums released in the series are littered with gems, none are quite as packed as The Man Comes Around, the final album Cash would release before his death.

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Record #387: Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two – Original Golden Hits, Volume 1 (1969)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
As well as releasing 96 studio albums in his lifetime, Johnny Cash’s record labels (and he had deals with dozens) released hundreds of compilations…
Especially these early tunes. This compilation includes every megahit but Ring of Fire. Folsom Prison Blues, Cry Cry Cry, Get Rhythm, I Walk the Line, and Hey Porter are all accounted for. Which makes sense, because I’m pretty sure every Johnny Cash compilation is legally required to feature at least one of those four tunes.
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And for any lesser musician, even the forgotten gems on this disc would be career standouts. But thanks to Cash’s boundless output, even these great tracks got buried under bonafide hits.

Record #299: Johnny Cash – I Walk the Line (1964)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Record #299: Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line (1964) In the mid 1960s, Johnny Cash, who was already an established star, signed to Columbia Records. In an effort to make as much money out of their new star, Columbia released I Walk the Line, an album...

 

In the mid 1960s, Johnny Cash, who was already an established star, signed to Columbia Records. In an effort to make as much money out of their new star, Columbia released I Walk the Line, an album filled with rerecorded versions of his biggest hits released through his old label. Cash grab though it was, there’s no denying that these are great songs are great. Big River, Folsom Prison Blues, Hey Porter, I Walk the Line…half of these songs were on the career spanning “Legend of Johnny Cash” released after his death.

 

Record #157: Emmylou Harris – Last Date (1982)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I read that this live album was meant to serve as a promotion for the Hot Band, the group Emmylou had brought along to support her. It certainly does that. From the opening track through to the final applause, what you notice first isn’t how much more earnest Harris’s voice sounds after she wears it out a little bit but the rollicking, honky tonking, freewheeling band behind her.

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