Sings I Walk The Line / Sings Folsom Prison Blues

by Johnny Cash

Description by OLDIES.com:

Two of Cash's best-loved albums are available together for the first time on this single compact disc. Highlights are "I Walk The Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues", songs which have become intrinsic parts of the American cultural landscape.

Product Description:

2 LPs on 1 CD: SINGS I WALK THE LINE (1970)/SINGS FOLSOM PRISON BLUES (1970).

SINGS I WALK THE LINE originally released on Sun (139). SINGS FOLSOM PRISON BLUES originally released on Sun (140). Includes liner notes by Mark Marymount.

In conjunction with reissue specialist Collectables, Sun Records reissued a pair of original Johnny Cash Sun collections on a single CD. Backed by his famed Tennessee Two, Cash made country and rockabilly history on Sun in the 1950s. With his lean, angular sound and hearty baritone voice full of passion and commitment, he forged one of the most unique styles in all of country music.

I WALK THE LINE finds Cash delivering the infectious, jumping rockabilly of "Get Rhythm" alongside the quirky "Luther's Boogie" (a tribute to Cash guitarist Luther Perkins' unorthodox style) and of course, the classic, endlessly modulating title tune. On FOLSOM PRISON BLUES, things get a bit darker, but Cash is no stranger to the shady side of the street. "Folsom Prison Blues," one of Cash's most powerful compositions, is an unsentimental account of a murderer, an almost existential account of crime and punishment that makes '90s gangsta rappers seem like wimps in comparison. "Cry, Cry, Cry" is just as unrelenting in its own way, as Cash audibly delights in imagining the vengeance time will wreak on his unfaithful paramour.