Johnny Cash Album: “Unearthed [Box]”

To put it quite plainly, Unearthed is essential for anyone who loved the last 10 years of Johnny Cash's recording career - his years with producer Rick Rubin on American Recordings, which many, including this humble reviewer, consider the best years of Cash's long and storied career. This set features not merely the best of the rest of those recordings, but the rest of the best. While some of them are not fully realized, there are many genuine revelations contained within. It boggles the mind how some of them did not make the original albums; some could have worked interchangeably, some are unquestionably better, while some, perhaps, simply did not fit the mood of the album. In any case, this boxed set, thoughtfully, has not been sequenced randomly: each of the first three discs is thematic and corresponds to a specific American album(s); the fourth, My Mother's Hymn Book, is a never-before-released gospel album; and the final disc is a Best Of for Cash on American records. As such, each disc stands very well on its own.

WHO'S GONNA CRY. This disc, corresponding with the first American album, features Cash unadorned, with just his acoustic guitar - and that voice. It features several great covers, a few previously-unreleased Cash songs, and some re-recordings of his former hits. It starts the set off with a killer, pardon the pun, version of Long Black Veil that is even better than the classic version on the At Folsom Prison album. Other highlights include Flesh and Blood, If I Give My Soul, a great Banks of the Ohio, Casey's Last Ride, and Dark As A Dungeon. The track Book Review is interesting, as the listener gets to hear Cash in conversation. The disc closes with a fine alternate version of Tom Waits's Down There By The Train. This disc is interesting for its immediacy and its focus on Cash's inimitable voice and for the naked and powerful emotionality that he brings to the songs.

TROUBLE IN MIND. Cash goes electric, with help from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Red Devils, and various members of his extended and very musical family. This disc is nearly flawless, with not a single weak track. It also has a considerably lighter tone than the dark first disc, with Carl Perkins even joining in for two of a series of rollicking rockabilly numbers. An epic, monumental re-invention of Neil Young's political Pocahontas starts off the disc. Other highlights include two distinct version of Dolly Parton's (!) I'm A Drifter; a peerless version of the country blues title track, which ranks among Cash's best performances on the entire set; a heartfelt duet with June Carter on the re-invented As Long As The Grass Shall Grow; the aforementioned rockabilly numbers; a driving version of Steve Earle's Devil's Right Hand; and worthy alternate versions of two great songs from the first American album. Closing out is a wonderful and beautiful take on Leonard Cohen's Bird On A Wire - complete with a full orchestra.

REDEMPTION SONGS. This disc is also virtually flawless, tainted only by the throwaway Salty Dog. Whereas the second disc worked parallel with the Unchained album, this disc corresponds with the last two American albums - primarily acoustic (though with a band) and darker in mood. A Singer of Songs is a great anthem to start off the disc. The absolute highlight, maybe of the entire set, comes with Redemption Song, a beautiful and heartfelt take on the Bob Marley song that brought tears to my eyes. The duets with Fiona Apple and Nick Cave included here are both superior to their counterparts on American IV and should have been on that album instead. Another great highlight of the disc is a tremendous version of Stephen Foster's Hard Time (Come Again No More), one of the very best tracks on the entire set. Great versions of Wichita Lineman, Big Iron, and You Are My Sunshine round out the disc.

MY MOTHER'S HYMN BOOK. This disc features 15 songs of Cash singing gospel songs armed with only an acoustic guitar. This is an album that he wanted to record all his life, and it is the one that he named as his personal favorite. A very personal album it is: Cash is literally singing from his mother's hymn book! Cash states in the liner notes how much these songs mean to him; it comes across clearly on his performances. These stark, moving, unadorned performances are truly something to behold: beautiful and very emotional. Even non-Christian listeners or those who do not like gospel songs, will find much to admire in this set because of its emotional, intense, and clearly heartfelt nature. For those who especially value Cash's gospel performances, this will be the best disc in the set; for those who are not especially interested in it, however, it may come off as somewhat boring.

BEST OF. The inclusion of this disc simply makes no sense: anyone who would buy an expensive boxed set of outtakes would already own the first four American albums. The track selection is good, but this is simply superfluous. This extra disc only serves to drive up the price of the box and should have been used to house even more unreleased takes.

The 100+ page booklet that comes with this set is excellent, tainted only by a few printing errors. It features very informative and moving notes by Sylvie Simmons, as well as the comments of Cash, Rubin, and the various sessionists for every track. The cardboard slips that house the discs, however, are rather poor. The valuable discs could easily be damaged with such shoddy housing. For the price, these certainly should have been of a higher quality; purchasers should keep their discs in separate jewel cases.

Overall, this is simply an essential purchase for anyone interested in the music of Johnny Cash. This is a grand statement from one of American music's towering greats.

Alot of people are going to tell you alot of bad things about

UnEarthed. The worst things I've heard are :

1.) The packaging/binding isn't very good - it's very flimsy

2.) There's only one CD worth buying in the set

3.) My mother's hymn book is boring

And I've heard so much stuff. BUT THIS SET IS AWESOME, DO NOT

First CD - Who's Gonna Cry

This is an awesome CD - with much the same sound of American

Long Black Veil and Flesh and Blood - it's cool to hear John sing

Just The Other Side of Nowhere, Understand your man, Two Timing

Second CD - Trouble In Mind

In my opinion - this is one of the best Johnny discs I've ever heard

Standout tracks:

I'm A Drifter (Dolly Parton cover - this is an awesome song!)

Like I said, this CD is awesome, every track is good - but those are

Disc Three - Redemption Songs

This sounds like later recordings, it had much the same sound of

Coolest tracks:

The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore - June did this song on her

Disc 4 - My Mother's Hymn Book

I grew up Southern Baptist - and I consider this one of my favorite

Best songs:

I Shall Not Be Moved

Disc 5 - Best Of American

I don't know why they threw this in - I have all of American

My favorites:

Delia's Gone

And to end this review - the boxing. I believe the box set is

To sum it all up - this is a great box set. I love it. And I would

I was visiting my Mother in Raleigh, NC over Christmas holiday in 2003. When she asked me what I wanted as a Christmas gift, this box set was in my mind. It had just been released that very first day of my visit and the price tag made it an inviting gift request. Remembering my youth, when my parents tired of buying music for me as gifts ( "You have more music than a person could listen to in his whole life!" ), I hesitated asking Mom. But we're both older now, she's a widow, and any request from her only son was more than OK with Mom.

When I took it back to her house we spent a quiet afternoon listening to Disc 4, the hymn music. Mom's devout and I figured she wouldn't hate it. She actually loved it, humming along to many of the songs she recognized from a lifetime of churchgoing. It was one of the most wonderful times I spent with my Mom since I was a child in her lap.

What does this sappy story have to do with a review of Cash' "Unearthed"? Nothing really. Except that music as wonderful and good as Johnny Cash's American Recordings can become part of the things we remember most fondly in life.

Do yourself a favor. If you have a loved one who might not be able to afford this box set, buy it for them as a gift. If they are a Johnny Cash fan, it may be one of the best gifts they ever receive.

Four cds of new music by Johnny Cash? Listen, it's a rare recording artist who does his best work at the end of his long (50 years!) career. Even the Beatles slid into confusion, misdirection and repetition as they got on in years, even while still recording some great music. After recording a series of increasing less interesting albums for Columbia in the late 1970s-early 1980s & a brief, bitter run with Mercury that almost nobody heard, Cash came roaring back in 1994, reminding everyone who had ears how good his 1955-1976 music was, how surprisingly good his Mercury recordings were and how strong his voice & vision still was. His re-recordings of some of his classic songs showed how powerful that vision had grown. His 1987 & 1994 recordings of Long Black Veil blow the 1963 version away. Understand Your Man, with the now openly acknowledged use of Bob Dylan's melody for Don't Think Twice, It's Alright, is better too. Ditto Flesh & Blood. New songs (new for Cash, anyway) like Redemption Song, Hard Times, Devil's Right Hand, the entire gospel cd, the beautiful A Singer Of Songs are all songs from a man producing his best work. Hank Williams looms large over country music but Johnny Cash has surpassed him in artistic quality, if only for living long enough to give us the glorious music of his last ten years. I hope that somebody officially releases the Dylan-Cash session from 1969 and the entire 1994 Viper Club set, perhaps as American VII. If you ever think about buying a boxed set, this is a great one to start with.

Subject says it all: I really believe that Johnny Cash's work with Rick Rubin over the past decade is some of the finest music ever put on disc by an American artist. This boxset is no exception- these are not outtakes in the sense of being rejects, but simply songs that didn't fit on to one of the original four albums for one reason or another. That is in no way a reflection of their quality. Rick Rubin truly gave music fans a gift by trusting Mr. Cash's instincts and allowing him to record songs that were of an interest to him. I wish he'd work with other artists, including Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen- I believe that these two have the potential to deliver the power and the honesty that Johnny did on these recordings. The hundred page book is essential, supplementing the songs which already speak for themselves, and making you wish that every artist you care about took the time to document their songs so well. Of the four new discs, the first is my favorite, with just Johnny and his guitar. All four are strong, though, and have fairly distinctive styles. At this stage in his career, Johnny's voice was better suited to the slower, acoustic ballads, and I think that these hold up better than some of the up tempo covers of older country songs. It's all very listening and very moving, though.

A few minor complaints- The main one is the packaging. I don't trust the scratchy cardboard sleeves to hold up or to not scratch the CDs. This is too expensive (and precious) a set to be marred by such an awkward case. Second, it's very, very expensive (and Amazon's price is surprisingly not very competitive). The fifth disc is superflous, since you likely have the original albums from which these songs were taken. The other four discs are far from full, and while I don't believe in jamming a CD with filler just for the sake of having no empty space, I do think a compilation could have more alternate versions tacked on after the main set of songs is done. These are minor complaints, and (other than the price) shouldn't disuade anyone from buying the set.

I'm looking forward to American Recordings V. Whenever that album is released, it should really be numbered as the 9th in the set, because these recordings are substantial enough to act as IV through VIII. I once heard Johnny's later music described as "the voice of God coming from the bottom of a barrel of aged whiskey". That ain't too far from the truth...