Tag Archives: Johnny Cash

November 5: Johnny Cash released Unchained in 1996

unchained

Unchained is my second favorite American Recording done by Johnny Cash (after the first).

It is the second album in Johnny Cash’s American Recording series (and his 82nd overall). Like all Cash’s albums for American, Unchained was produced by Rick Rubin.

On the album, Cash is backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as well as a guest appearance of Flea, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood. Marty Stuart also plays on 8 tracks.

Johnny Cash (w/Marty Stuart) – Rusty Cage (including interview with Jay Leno, 1996):

Continue reading November 5: Johnny Cash released Unchained in 1996

July 26 in music history

Mick Jagger is 71 Happy Birthday! (read more)

Mick Jagger’s career has spanned over fifty years. His performance style has been said to have “opened up definitions of gendered masculinity and so laid the foundations for self-invention and sexual plasticity which are now a part of contemporary youth culture”.

 

Read more about Mick Jagger and Rolling Stones

mick jagger

July 26: Johnny Cash: Newport Folk Festival, Freebody Park, Newport 1964 (videos & audio) (read more)

On July 26, 1965, Johnny Cash performed at Newport with this great band:

 

  • Johnny Cash (v, acg)
  • Luther Perkins (eg)
  • Marshall Grant (b)
  • WS Holland (d)

 

Johnny Cash, NFF64, #2

July 26: Bob Dylan: Visions of Madonna, Tramps New York City, New York 1999 (read more)

On the 26th of July, 1999, in a club in Manhattan, Bob Dylan delivered one of his greatest performances ever of his well-loved 1966 epic “Visions of Johanna.” As if to acknowledge and signal his awareness of the power and freshness of this latest reinterpretation, the singer-bandleader effectively changed the title of the song halfway through, by starting to sing the chorus as: “And these visions of Madonna are now all that remain/ … have kept me up past the dawn.”
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond)

bobdylan1999

Harper Valley PTA” is a country song written by Tom T. Hall that was a major international hit single for country singer Jeannie C. Riley in 1968. Riley’s record sold over six million copies as a single. The song made Riley the first woman to top both Billboard’s Hot 100 and the U.S. country single’s charts with the same song, a feat that would go unrepeated until Dolly Parton‘s “9 to 5 ” in 1981. According to several sources – it was recorded in July 26 – 1968.

Harper Valley PTA
Darlene Love (July 26, 1941)
American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song “He’s a Rebel,” a No. 1 American single in 1962, and was one of the Phil Spector artists who produced a celebrated Christmas album in 1963
DarleneLove_HerMySpace
Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations, and the Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part of the charge in black music onto radio stations and record shelves of mainstream America, “bridging the color lines in music at the time.”With a string of hit singles composed mainly by Smokey Robinson, including “Two Lovers” (1962), the Grammy-nominated “You Beat Me to the Punch” (1962) and her signature hit, “My Guy” (1964), she became recognized as “The Queen of Motown” until her departure from the company in 1964, at the height of her popularity. She was one of Motown’s first singing superstars. 200px-Mary_Wells_1964

Spotify Playlist – July 25

July 04 in music history

Happy 76th Birthday Bill Withers (read more)

I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you.
~Bill Withers
Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, It’s not warm when she’s away, Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone, And she’s always gone too long, Anytime she goes away.
~Bill Withers (Ain’t No Sunshine)

Bill Withers
 “Honky Tonk Women” is a 1969 hit song by the Rolling Stones. Released as a single on 4 July 1969 in the United Kingdom and a week later in the United States, it topped the charts in both nations.  Rolling-Stones-Honky-Tonk-Women
 Peter Rowan (b. July 4, 1942, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings.  Peter Rowan
 American V: A Hundred Highways is the 93rd overall album and a posthumous album by Johnny Cash released on July 4, 2006. As the title implies, it is the fifth entry in Cash’s American series. Like its predecessors, American V: A Hundred Highways is produced byRick Rubin and released on Rubin’s American Recordings record label via Lost Highway Records, as they currently distribute country releases from the American Recordings label. It was certified Gold on 8/18/2006 by the R.I.A.A.  JohnnyCash-AmericanV

Bob Dylan: Rich Stadium, Buffalo, New York 4 July 1986 (videos)

bob dylan Buffalo 1986

Spotify Playlist – July 04

June 4 in music history

30 year anniversary for Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA (read more)

Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by  Bruce Springsteen, it was released on June 4, 1984. A critical and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound.

While the predecessor, the dark and acoustic Nebraska featured songs of pessimism and isolation, Born in the U.S.A.’s lyrics expressed signs of hope in the daily fight of the standard American in following the American Dream, a new feeling complemented by synthesized arrangements and a pop-flavored, radio-oriented sound that helped Springsteen to extend his popularity and appeal to mainstream audiences.

born in the usa

45 year anniversary for Johnny Cash’s Live at San Quentin (read more)

At San Quentin is the 31st overall album and a recording of a live concert given by Johnny Cash to the inmates of San Quentin State Prison. As well as being released on record the concert was filmed by Granada Television.

The album was a follow-up to Cash’s previous live album, the critically acclaimed and commercially successful At Folsom Prison.

On the original LP release, the song order was changed and several songs were cut, probably for space reasons. Despite the title of the version released on CD in 2000 – At San Quentin (The Complete 1969 Concert) – the CD does not contain the entire concert uncut, but does feature additional tracks and running order that parallels the actual set list.

Johnny_Cash_At_San_Quentin

The Ballad of John and Yoko” released Jun 4, 1969, in the US (May 30 in the UK)

a song written by John Lennon, attributed to Lennon–McCartney as was the custom, and released by the Beatles as a single in May 1969. The song, chronicling the events surrounding Lennon’s marriage to Yoko Ono, was the Beatles’ 17th and final UK number one single

The song was recorded without George Harrison (who was on holiday) and Ringo Starr (who was filming The Magic Christian). In his biography, McCartney recalls that Lennon had a sudden inspiration for the song and had suggested that the two of them should record it immediately, without waiting for the other Beatles to return. Reflecting this somewhat unusual situation, the session recordings include the following exchange:

 

Lennon (on guitar): “Go a bit faster, Ringo!”
McCartney (on drums): “OK, George!”

 

uk_ballad-of-john-and-yoko

Kasey Chambers (born 4 June 1976)

Australian country singer-songwriter. She is the daughter of steel guitar player Bill Chambers, and the sister of musician and producer Nash Chambers.

Chambers was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia. She grew up on the Nullarbor Plain where her family lived seven to eight months a year until 1986.

In late 2005, Chambers married Australian singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson.

 kasey chambers

Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri – October 28, 1975)

American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist,arranger and composer.Oliver Nelson was a distinctive soloist on alto, tenor, and even soprano, but his writing eventually overshadowed his playing skills. He became a professional early on in 1947, playing with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and with St. Louis big bands headed by George Hudson and Nat Towles. In 1951, he arranged and played second alto for Louis Jordan‘s big band, and followed with a period in the Navy and four years at a university. After moving to New York, Nelson worked briefly with Erskine HawkinsWild Bill Davis, and Louie Bellson (the latter on the West Coast). In addition to playing with Quincy Jones’ orchestra (1960-1961), between 1959-1961 Nelson recorded six small-group albums and a big band date; those gave him a lot of recognition and respect in the jazz world. Blues and the Abstract Truth (from 1961) is considered a classic and helped to popularize a song that Nelson had included on a slightly earlier Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis session, “Stolen Moments.” He also fearlessly matched wits effectively with the explosive Eric Dolphy on a pair of quintet sessions. But good as his playing was, Nelson was in greater demand as an arranger, writing for big band dates of Jimmy SmithWes Montgomery, and Billy Taylor, among others. By 1967, when he moved to Los Angeles, Nelsonwas working hard in the studios, writing for television and movies. He occasionally appeared with a big band, wrote a few ambitious works, and recorded jazz on an infrequent basis, but Oliver Nelson was largely lost to jazz a few years before his unexpected death at age 43 from a heart attack.
-Scott Yanow (allmusic)

oliver nelson

James ‘Jimmy’ McCulloch (4 June 1953 – 27 September 1979)

Scottish musician and songwriter best known for playing lead guitar in Paul McCartney’s Wings from 1974 to 1977. McCulloch was a member of the Glasgow psychedelic band One in a Million (formerly known as The Jaygars), Thunderclap Newman, and Stone the Crows.[1] He also made appearances on many albums, including John Entwistle’s Whistle Rymes in 1972, as lead guitarist playing alongside Peter Frampton on “Apron Strings” and “I Feel Better”; and onRoy Harper’s album, Bullinamingvase, and Ricci Martin’s album, Bleached, both in 1977. McCulloch also played guitar on Roger Daltrey’s album One of the boys which was released in 1977. McCulloch was a friend of The Who and a member of the band Thunderclap Newman, which was created and produced by his mentor Pete Townshend.

220px-Jimmy_McCulloch_-_Wings_-_1976

Ronald Frederick “Ronnie” Lane (1 April 1946 – 4 June 1997)

English musician, songwriter, and producer who is best known as the bass guitarist and founding member of two prominent English rock and roll bands: Small Faces where he was nicknamed “Plonk” (1965–69), and, after losing the band’s frontman, Faces, with two new members added to the line-up, (from the Jeff Beck Group), who dubbed him “Three-Piece” (1969–73). It was for his work in both Small Faces and Faces that Lane was inducted posthumously into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Subsequently Lane collaborated with other musicians, leading his own bands as well as pursuing a solo career while remaining close to his former bandmates. In the late 1970s he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and, despite charity projects and financial support from friends, former bandmates and fans, Lane, after suffering from the disease for 21 years, died at 51.

Ronnie Lane

Spotify Playlist – June 4:

April 26 in music history

20 year anniversary for Johnny Cash’s American RecordingsAmerican Recordings did something very important — it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he’d been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)
cash american 1
William “Count” Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984)
was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie’s theme songs were “One O’Clock Jump” and “April In Paris”.
Count_Basie_in_Rhythm_and_Blues_Revue
Johnny Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992)
was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, “Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth. When Shines came back to the blues in 1965 he was 50, yet his voice had the leonine power of a dozen years before, when he made records his reputation was based on”.
johnny shines
 Devils & Dust is the 13th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, and his third folk album (after Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad). It was released on April 25, 2005 in Europe and on April 26 in the US. It debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200 album chart.  bruce devil and dust
Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886? – December 22, 1939)
was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.
MaRainey
Duane Eddy (born April 26, 1938)
is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically “twangy” sound, including “Rebel Rouser”, “Peter Gunn”, and “Because They’re Young”. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
 duane eddy

 

– Hallgeir