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Johnny Cash...Sounding Better Than Ever?

I've been cuing up a lot of Johnny Cash tunes of late (~200 on my music server) and have been very impressed recently with the overall sound quality of many of his better known recordings.

One reason I suppose this has caught my attention is that the first record I ever purchased as a kid (mail order in response to a cable TV advertisement about 40 years ago) was a double vinyl set of Johnny's Sun Records recordings, and I had always been under the impression (probably due to low-fi gear I had at the time) that these were not very good recordings.

Well, at least with digital remastering and all, I must say that most of Johnny's recordings (Sun years and later COlumbia and American Records) are very good indeed!

I also have a 3 disk Sun Records 50th Anniversary set that I picked up this past summer when my family and I visited MEmphis and the Sun Studios. I have been most impressed with the sound quality these days on many of these old mostly mono recordings. The dynamics in particular of many are some of the sharpest and snappiest I have heard.
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Showing 3 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman OP
21,835 posts
 
"The soundtrack from the movie "Walk the Line" is also good. (Phoenix and Witherspoon)"

Love that flic! Thought of the Sun Studio scenes in that movie while actually at Sun Studios in Memphis! That movie really brought that place and those events to life!

Yes, the soundtrack quality is very good also.

Witherspoon's singing performances were amazingly good. I recall thinking she could have been a successful country singer if her movie career were not so lucrative also.

Joaquin Phoenix gave a great and gutsy performance also as Johnny Cash but his vocals in the flick pale in comparison to the real thing.
mapman's avatar
mapman OP
21,835 posts
 
The American Recordings have better detail and are more live-like than his older stuff as a whole I'm finding but much of the older stuff (remastered) though largely mixed differently and more "studio like" is still sounding darn good and way better than I remember having ever heard them before.
mapman's avatar
mapman OP
21,835 posts
 
I can also recommend the sound on "The Legend", a very comprehensive box set, "Personal File", which is just Johnny and his guitar in his recording studio back in his prime vocal years singing and telling stories about various songs that meant something to him that he could recall from over the years. It is like he is there in the room delivering a personal concert just for you!

"Folsum Prison" is an involving live recording also.
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