Johnny Cash - Essential Johnny Cash (CD)

2-CD best-of revisits familiar territory

By redtunictroll  Mar 15, 2002 | 2 out of 2 found this Essential Johnny Cash review helpful

Though there have been several anthologies summarizing the better known material from Cash’s nearly fifty-year recording career, the bulk of his work has been unavailable on domestic CD. Columbia’s year-long reissue program, celebrating Cash’s sev...entieth birthday, kicks off with this double-disc, thirty-six track overview that abbreviates 1992’s seventy-five song, triple-disc box, "The Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983," and adds a few choice alternate selections.Like its big-brother, the new set spans Cash’s late ’50s recordings for Sun and his ’60s-70s work for Columbia, and also adds a few tracks from his time at Mercury. Alternate picks from the box set include duets with Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings, and June Carter Cash, the mid-60s novelty, "The One on the Right is on the Left," a pair of patriotic tunes ("Ragged Old Flag" and "Song of the Patriot"), and a 1993 collaboration with U2. Missing (and certainly more essential than the U2 cut) are tracks from Cash’s late-90s work with producer Rick Ruben.What’s here is certainly essential, and its scope fills a niche between single-disc greatest hits and the more expansive 1992 box. It trods compilation ground that’s been well mapped on earlier releases, yet serves nicely as both a value-priced entry to Cash’s work, and a primer to the on-going reissue campaign.4-1/2 stars, if Yahoo allowed fractional ratings. Read more Less