Ancient history, I know, but I grew up in a small rural town where I was indoctrinated by the music of Johnny Cash daily on AM radio. And even though my ten-year-old self soon had enough cash (pun intended) stuffed in my pocket to procure Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison—which would be my first LP purchase, ever—I walked out of the record store with Meet The Beatles. While that decision shifted my musical direction forever, I never lost an appreciation for the "Man in Black," and even marveled when he joined Bob Dylan to sing "Girl From the North Country" on Dylan's own Nashville Skyline. And I listened with rapt attention as he redefined his legacy for a new generation of fans with his American Recordings in the mid-Nineties. But like many of the artists at the forefront of the nascent rockabilly movement, Johnny Cash got his start at Memphis' Sun Records, where he recorded his first album, 1957's Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar.
Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar is the second release in Intervention Records' Sun Records Hi-Fi Series, and is being offered as a deluxe 180 gram, 45 rpm mono LP reissue of the legendary Sun Records album. Cash's album became a huge hit in 1957, and not only compiled a handful of his first singles for Sam Phillips' Sun Records, but also features many of his most popular songs, including "Rock Island Line," "Cry, Cry, Cry!" "Folsom Prison Blues," and his first huge crossover hit, "I Walk The Line." Which not only reached the top of the country charts (it remained number one for six weeks!), but crossed over into the top twenty of the Billboard pop charts as well.
Kevin Gray mastered Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar directly from the original master tapes using a AAA, all analog process at Cohearent Audio, where he also cut the 45 rpm lacquers. RTI plated the LP using a 3-step process, and the 180 gram LP was pressed on ultra-quiet, high-definition vinyl at Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland, Ohio, a bespoke pressing plant that specializes in short-run, high quality LPs. Reissue producer Shane Buettner of Intervention Records waxed poetically about Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar: "I never imagined that I'd hear the iconic voice of Johnny Cash on Intervention Records...and I don't think music fans around the world have ever heard Johnny's voice, or Sam Phillips' famous Sun Studio sound, as clearly and definitively as they will on this new 45 RPM mono cut. This is as close [as] you can get to a time machine back to Memphis in the 1950s!"
The heavy album jacket features restored artwork sourced from the Sun Records archives, and the album package was created by industry leader Stoughton Printing using their "Old Style" tip-on process. A graphically stylish, full-color insert contains new liner notes written for the reissue by Sun Records historian Colin Escott, who's often referred to as "the world's foremost authority on Sun Records." The beautifully glossy, 180 gram LP arrived inserted in a perfectionist, custom-branded rice-paper style inner sleeve—in every aspect of the Sun Records Hi-Fi Series, Intervention Records again shows their dedication to the art of high-end LP reissues, and definitely brought their A game with this excellent release. You can order a copy of Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar from Intervention Records' web store HERE; it can also very likely be found at a variety of brick and mortar locations, including your favorite independent record store.
Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar, Intervention Records. 180 gram 45 rpm Mono LP, $43.
When Johnny Cash first arrived in Memphis at Sun Records Studio mid-1955, he billed himself as a gospel singer, but Sam Phillips wasn't too certain another gospel singer was what the market was pining for. Phillips asked him to return with something more commercially viable, and Cash wrote a pair of songs overnight, "Cry, Cry, Cry!" and "Hey Porter!" Upon his return to Sun Records Studio, Sam Phillips quickly recorded and released them as singles, and "Cry, Cry, Cry!" rocketed up the country charts. Cash's catchy tune reached as high as number 14, while selling over 100,000 copies regionally and landing Cash a spot on the Louisiana Hayride Tour. Soon Johnny Cash was touring with Elvis Presley, and had developed the kind of cachet that demanded an LP release. And in no time at all found himself back in Memphis recording Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar. The album was one of Sun Records' first LP releases, and included songs compiled from his earliest singles sessions along with eight new studio recordings.
Johnny Cash recorded his first Sun Records' single with Luther Perkins on electric lead guitar and Marshall Grant on upright bass; Sam Phillips quickly assigned the duo with the moniker "The Tennessee Two," and they became Cash's regular backup band for nearly a quarter-century. Memphis' Sun Studio was quite nearly acoustically dead, but Phillips got around that obstacle by augmenting Cash's acoustic guitar, his deep baritone voice, and the accompaniment of the Tennessee Two with what came to be known as Sun's signature "studio slapback" echo. Which was accomplished using a pair of Ampex 350 tape machines, feeding the live studio signal into one machine, and its playback output into the second machine. The delay effect helped define Cash's "boom-chicka-boom" sound, but also became uneditable in later reissues, as it was directly imprinted onto the master tapes. Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar spawned some of Cash's most endearing songs and biggest hits; the undying popularity of "Folsom Prison Blues" found it reaching the top of the country charts again a decade later with the release of his album Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison.
Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar is another winning title in the Sun Records Hi-Fi Series
Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar offers yet another perfect example of a textbook LP pressing from Gotta Groove Records; the platter was perfectly flat, with flawlessly beautiful, glossy vinyl sides that exhibited no appreciable groove or surface noise. No worries here about Sun Records' slapback echo effect—the sound quality of this LP is to die for, and the echo enhances the perfectly captured studio performances on this classic Fifties wide-mono recording. Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two are as "live and in your room" as you're ever likely to hear them, in any of his catalog of studio recordings. This LP delivers these excellent performances with a vitality that exceeded my expectations in every way possible!
Besides being a sonic gem, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar is filled with classic songs I've heard played countless times across the decades. And the versions of the songs you hear on this amazing album are the definitive performances that helped make Johnny Cash a living legend. From the opening notes of "Rock Island Line," you know you're in for a real treat, and when Cash and the Tennessee Two step up the tempo to near breakneck speed, the propulsive performance pushes the entertainment factor completely off the charts! Sam Phillips knew what a tremendous talent he had in Johnny Cash, and thankfully, he also knew exactly how to capture his magic on tape for all time. Shane Buettner and the entire crew at Intervention Records deserve all the accolades heaped on them for this incredible series of reissues, which keep this music alive in all its analog glory. Well done!
Many thanks to Maria Malta for keeping me in the loop with regard to Intervention's superb Sun Records reissues, which continue to delight with each new release. Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar comes very highly recommended—grab a copy of this one quickly!
Intervention Records
All images courtesy of Intervention Records, Sun Records Studio, and the author
