johnny cash with his hot and blue guitar!

Johnny Cash was already a star when this collection of country folk, rockabilly, and murder ballads was finally released. 'Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!' was produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Records and included the hit singles that had been released in the two years before.   Cash had grown up listening to gospel and country music.  He revealed in a Rolling Stone interview:   "The first I remember was my mother playing the guitar. Before I started school. I was four or five years old, but I remember singing with her. Carter Family songs, a lot of them. I don't remember any of them in particular, but I know they were gospel songs, church songs...I started writing songs when I was about twelve. I started writing some poems and then made some music up to go along with them. They were love songs, sad songs. I think the death of my brother, Jack, when I was twelve, had a lot to do with it. My poems were awfully sad at the time. My brother and I were very, very close."

After high school, Cash joined the Air Force and was stationed in Landsberg, Germany where he formed his first band the Landsberg Barbarians. When he returned to the states, he met Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant and they started performing together in Memphis. Cash remembered: "I found out about Sun Records in Memphis. They were getting pretty hot with Elvis about that time, so I called about an audition. I remember how scared I was the first time I walked into Sun. It was Sam Phillips and his secretary, Miss McGinnis. They didn't even remember I had an appointment to record. I got the first of seven 'come back laters'. I told Phillips that I wrote gospel songs. I thought 'Belshazzar' was the best song I had to show him. He said, 'Well, the market is not too good for gospel songs. Come back sometime when you feel like you've got something else. But we eventually got together...The first session was really something. Luther Perkins had a little secondhand Sears amplifier with a six-inch speaker. Marshall Grant had a bass that was held together with masking tape. I had a $4.80 guitar that I had brought back from Germany. Phillips had to be a genius to get anything out of that conglomeration...It was exciting, things were happening so fast. I remember one day going into the studio and Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis were both there. Carl Perkins came in a few minutes later, and the four of us stood around the piano singing hymns."


'Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!'  became the first full album released on the Sun label; but Cash was unhappy there.  Phillips was reluctant to let him record gospel music and was spending more time on Jerry Lee Lewis' career.  Cash would leave Sun for Columbia Records the next year. 








http://www.johnnycash.com/










'I Walk the Line' made Cash a star. The single topped the country chart for six weeks and walked up to number seventeen on the pop chart. Cash recalled: “I wrote the song backstage one night in 1956 in Gladewater, Texas. I was newly married at the time, and I suppose I was laying out my pledge of devotion."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEV58ztuihs


I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine,
I walk the line
I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I'll admit I'm a fool for you
Because you're mine,
I walk the line
As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I've known proves that it's right
Because you're mine,
I walk the line
You've got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can't hide
For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide
Because you're mine,
I walk the line






'Folsom Prison Blues' was inspired by the film 'Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison'. Cash described how the line "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" came about: "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind."    Originally released as the b-side to 'So Doggone Lonesome' in 1955, the song went to number one on the country charts in Canada and the US when it was released as the centerpiece of his live album 'At Folsom Prison' in 1968.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1xSt7iganA


I hear the train a comin'
It's rollin' 'round the bend,
And I ain't seen the sunshine,
Since, I don't know when,
I'm stuck in Folsom Prison,
And time keeps draggin' on,
But that train keeps a-rollin',
On down to San Antone.
When I was just a baby,
My Mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy,
Don't ever play with guns,"
But I shot a man in Reno,
Just to watch him die,
When I hear that whistle blowin',
I hang my head and cry.
I bet there's rich folks eatin',
In a fancy dining car,
They're probably drinkin' coffee,
And smokin' big cigars,
But I know I had it comin',
I know I can't be free,
But those people keep a-movin',
And that's what tortures me.
Well, if they freed me from this prison,
If that railroad train was mine,
I bet I'd move out over a little,
Farther down the line,
Far from Folsom Prison,
That's where I want to stay,
And I'd let that lonesome whistle,
Blow my blues away.












'Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!' 
full album:




Songs composed by Johnny Cash except where noted.

1."Rock Island Line" (Lead Belly) – 2:11
2."(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle" (Jimmie Davis, Hank Williams) – 2:25
3."Country Boy" – 1:49
4."If the Good Lord's Willing" (Jerry Reed) – 1:44
5."Cry! Cry! Cry!" – 2:29
6."Remember Me (I'm the One Who Loves You)" (Stuart Hamblen) – 2:01
7."So Doggone Lonesome"  – 2:39
8."I Was There When It Happened" (Jimmie Davis, Fern Jones) – 2:17
9."I Walk the Line" – 2:46
10."Wreck of the Old 97" (Trad. (prob. Charles Noell); arr. Cash) – 1:48
11."Folsom Prison Blues" – 2:51
12."Doin' My Time" (Jimmie Skinner) – 2:40