Johnny Cash Album: “Christmas & The Cash Family”

I'd like to know what the one reviewer thought he was going to hear when he got this CD. Not "classic Cash"? I think it's very much classic Cash... just doing Christmas songs. The words "Johnny Cash Country Christmas" on the cover should be a clue to this.

For the most part they perform the songs in a 'traditional' style. The only exception is "Figgy Pudding", which I actually find to be rather annoying as a screeching woman continues to ask for her snack. On a couple of the songs Cash performs very little or not at all, letting the womens' group take control. Not that that's a bad thing, though.

If you love Cash's bass and want a nice, simple Christmas CD this would probably be a good buy for you.

As usual, Johnny Cash provides a very satifying album. You know what you are going to get when you purchase a Cash disc and he does not let down here.

I got this for a friend that loves Johnny Cash and seems to have all of his music. She and her husband were really surprised to see that I had found it and thought it to be a very special gift! Enjoy this for yourself or for someone that loves the 'Man in Black'!

My family and I enjoy Johnny Cash's music throughout his career, and Christmas music is a seasonal pleasure for us, even though we celebrate Yule--it still all works. This album, however, is too far into the realm of sermon-and-Christmas-service to be palatable. Beyond that, the Carter-Cash clan singing backup, or rather, trying to sing, doubtless make this a jewel for their immediate family, but is too "rough" and discordant (honestly, these folks can't carry a tune in a dump truck) to be what I'd call "pleasant Christmas music" for general listening.

Digitally recorded at Germantown Studio in Nashville in June and August of 1991, this includes some seasonal classic carols as well as the Hayes-Johnson composition Blue Christmas. First done by Ernest Tubb back in 1949, it has become more closely associated with Elvis following the release of his Christmas album in 1957. In giving it his unique interpretation here, however, Johnny stakes a claim to making it his own.

I also like June Carter and The Carter Family's happy and joyous presentation of Figgy Pudding, a take on We Wish You A Merry Christmas written by June and Jack Hale, Jr., who arranged this album and backs up the artists with his Nashville All-Star Band.

June and the family are also solo on tracks 8 and 10, with the latter just a marvelously warm, down-home country rendition of O Christmas Tree. Johnny's narration on Here Was A Man from the pens of Tex Ritter and Johnny Bond is vintage Cash, and on Away In A Manger the haunting fiddle reminds you of the background music heard on the Ken Burns TV documentary The Civil War.

Some liner notes would have been welcome [there are none other than a listing of other Christmas CDs available from LaserLight] if only to fill us in on the background surrounding the creation of the album, and who exactly performs on each track, including the musicians in Hale's band. It also would have been nice had they added just one track from the past to make it an even 14 - his 1959 rendition of The Little Drummer Boy which made both the Country and pop charts.

But hey, for the price asked you cannot go wrong with this offering from an American musical icon.