Johnny cash tribute

Various Johnny's Blues: a Tribute to Johnny Cash - Brief Article - Sound Recording Review

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Following Dressed in Black (Dualtone) and Kindred Spirits (Lucky Dog), this is (at least) the third multi-artist tribute to late country, and folk, legend Johnny Cash in the past two years. Although this one is billed as a blues tribute, it's a diverse group of artists and songs, some of which succeed brilliantly, while a few fall flat.

Let me begin by calling attention to some of the highlights. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Benjy Davis do a wonderful, infectious version of "Get Rhythm," while Maria Muldaur, accompanied by Del Rey's solo acoustic guitar is superb on "Walking the Blues." Garland Jeffreys does a great job on his zydeco interpretation of "I Walk the Line," and Alvin Youngblood Hart, solo on acoustic guitar, nails Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down," a hit for Cash in the early-1970s.

The highlights also include several songs, albeit from Cash's repertoire, which are more associated with other artists. For example, Chris Thomas King's terrific version of "Rock Island Line" owes much more to Lead Belly than to Cash, while "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," performed magnificently by Mavis Staples, was a standard decades before Cash came on the scene.

As noted, there are some missteps. The songs themselves are lost in the leaden, much too heavy arrangements, that Colin Linden puts on "Big River" and that Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, a band that includes Linden, give to "Folsom Prison Blues." For a brilliant blues version of the latter, listen to Keb' Mo' on Kindred Spirits.

However, the successes outweigh the failures on Johnny's Blues, allowing me to give this one a qualified recommendation.--MR