Johnny Cash - With His Hot And Blue Guitar (1st Album US 1957)

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Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster

Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar is the debut album by American country star Johnny Cash, released on October 11, 1957. The album contained four of his hit singles: "I Walk the Line," "Cry! Cry! Cry!," "So Doggone Lonesome," and "Folsom Prison Blues." It was re-issued on July 23, 2002 as an expanded edition, under the label Varese Vintage, containing five bonus tracks, three being alternate versions of tracks already present on the original LP. In 2012, Columbia Records reissued the album with 16 additional non-album Sun tracks as part of its 63-disc Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection box set.

This was one of the first albums ever issued on Sam Phillips' Sun Records label.

Background:
Cash auditioned for a place on the music label Sun Records in 1955, but failed to impress its founder Sam Philips after presenting himself as a gospel singer. Cash was told to come back with a more commercial sound, as gospel wouldn't sell. He returned with the songs "Hey Porter!" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!" and subsequently released them as his debut single on Sun Records in July 1955. On the recording, he was backed by Luther Perkins on guitar and Marshall Grant on bass, dubbed "The Tennessee Two" by Philips. ("Hey Porter" was not included on the original Sun album, but was included in later reissues by other labels.)

"Cry! Cry! Cry!" became a commercial success, entering the country charts at number fourteen.

His second single, "Folsom Prison Blues", was released in December 1955 and reached the country Top Five in early 1956.

His final single on With His Hot and Blue Guitar, "I Walk the Line", continued his success, reaching number one on the country charts and staying there for six weeks, eventually crossing over into the pop Top 20.

Folsom Prison Blues:
"Folsom Prison Blues" is a song written in 1953[4] and first recorded in 1955 by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. The song combines elements from two popular folk styles, the train song and the prison song, both of which Cash continued to use for the rest of his career. It was one of Cash's signature songs. It was the eleventh track on his debut album With His Hot and Blue Guitar and it was also included (same version) on All Aboard the Blue Train. A live version, recorded among inmates at Folsom State Prison itself, became a #1 hit on the country music charts in 1968. In June 2014, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 51 on its list of the 100 greatest country songs of all time.

Cash was inspired to write this song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force at Landsberg, Bavaria (itself the location of a famous prison). Cash recounted how he came up with the line "But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die": "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."

Cash took the melody for the song and many of the lyrics from Gordon Jenkins's 1953 Seven Dreams concept album, specifically the song "Crescent City Blues". Jenkins was not credited on the original record, which was issued by Sun Records. In the early 1970s, after the song became popular, Cash paid Jenkins a settlement of approximately US$75,000 following a lawsuit.

The song was recorded at the Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee on July 30, 1955. The producer was Sam Phillips, and the musicians were Cash (vocals, guitar), Luther Perkins (guitar), and Marshall Grant (bass). Like other songs recorded during his early Sun Records sessions, Cash had no drummer in the studio, but replicated the snare drum sound by inserting piece of paper (like a dollar bill) under the guitar strings and strumming the snare rhythm on his guitar. The song was released as a single with another song recorded at the same session, "So Doggone Lonesome". Early in 1956, both sides reached #4 on the Billboard C&W Best Sellers chart.

Live recording, 1968:
Cash opened most all of his concerts with "Folsom Prison Blues," after greeting the audience with his trademark introduction, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash," for decades. Cash performed the song at Folsom Prison itself on January 13, 1968, and this version was eventually released on the At Folsom Prison album the same year. That opening version of the song is more up-tempo than the original Sun recording. According to Michael Streissguth, the cheering from the audience following the line "But I shot a man in Reno / just to watch him die" was added in post-production. A special on the Walk the Line DVD indicates that the prisoners were careful not to cheer at any of Cash's comments about the prison itself, fearing reprisal from guards. The performance again featured Cash, Perkins and Grant, as on the original recording, together with Al Casey (guitar) and W.S. Holland (drums).

Released as a single, the live version reached #1 on the country singles chart, and #32 on the Hot 100, in 1968. Pitchfork Media placed this live version at number 8 on its list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s." The live performance of the song won Cash the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, the first of four he won in his career, at the 1969 Grammy Awards.

Original recording, 1957:
01. "The Rock Island Line" Unknown  02:11
02. "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle" Jimmie Davis, Hank Williams  02:25
03. "Country Boy"  01:49
04. "If the Good Lord's Willing" Jerry Reed  01:44
05. "Cry! Cry! Cry!"  02:29
06. "Remember Me" Stuart Hamblen  02:01
07. "So Doggone Lonesome"  02:39
08. "I Was There When It Happened" Jimmie Davis, Fern Jones  02:17
09. "I Walk the Line"  02:46
10. "The Wreck of the Old '97" Traditional (probably Charles Noell); arranged Cash  01:48
11. "Folsom Prison Blues"  02:51
12. "Doin' My Time" Jimmie Skinner  02:40

Bonus: Radio Live 1958-59
13. Rock Island Line (Haven't Recorded it Yet) [Radio Live Bonus 1956]  02:31
14. Folsom Prison Blues [Radio Live Bonus 1956]  03:02
15. Reserve For Youth Training Program” spot [Radio Live Bonus 1956]  01:12
16  Don't Take Your Guns To Town [Radio Live Bonus 1956]  03:11
17. Get Rhythm (“Our latest release on Sun”) [Radio Live Bonus 1956]  02:27
18. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot [Radio Live Bonus 1956]  02.22
19. So Doggone Lonesome [Radio Live Bonus 1956] 02:39
20. Cry Cry Cry [Radio Live Bonus 1956]  02:00

These are vintage radio broadcast transcription discs (at times you can “hear” the vinyl which adds flavor). The sound quality is amazing. Country Style USA is from 1958, Guest Star is from 1959. That’s all the info I have. I received these many years ago in a trade and transferred them from cassette. This is as good as it gets.

Country Style USA was a radio program syndicated by the US Army Band and Recruiting Services and broadcast as a recruiting tool for them.          

Produced by the U.S. Treasury Department in the 1940s and 1950s as a public service program, Guest Star features a different often top-name "guest star" (singer, actor, comedian) each week to promote the sales of savings bonds previoulsy circulated with incorrect dates of 1958 & 1959.

1. Johnny Cash US 1957
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2. Johnny Cash US 1957
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3. Johnny Cash US 1957