Hymns By Johnny Cash Tracks
1. It Was Jesus
2. I Saw A Man
3. Are All The Children In
4. The Old Account
5. Lead Me Gently Home
6. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
7. Snow In His Hair
8. Lead Me Father
9. I Call Him
10. These Things Shall Pass
11. He'll Be A Friend
12. God Will
13. It Was Jesus mono
Hymns By Johnny Cash Review
No country artist this side of Hank Williams strikes a better balance between secular temptation and spiritual redemption than Johnny Cash. While Hymns (originally released in 1959) is an album-length testament of faith, it features the characteristics of Cash's classic country--the conversational phrasing and plainspoken conviction, the craggy baritone that sounds like it was carved from Mount Rushmore, the stripped-down arrangements, and the steady lope of Luther Perkins's guitar. Many of the highlights are Cash originals, from the propulsive "It Was Jesus" to the stately "Lead Me Father" to the call-and-response of "He'll Be a Friend." A stirring "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" finds Cash putting his signature on the traditional hymnal as well. Throughout, there's a musical spirit of sharing rather than preaching. --Don McLeese
1959's "Hymns By Johnny Cash" is considered the album for which Cash "came to Columbia" (or "left Sun," depending on who's talking). Sun's owner, Sam Phillips, didn't see a market for an album of sacred songs, but Columbia had no such misgivings, and sold a half-million copies. Cash invested himself deeply in these declarations of faith, his baritone praise (set against stark accompaniment) displayed a growing maturity and distance from the pop orientation of his Sun days. The mix of originals and standards became mainstays of his repertoire, providing a moral focal point for his shows and an oft-needed lifeline for his soul.
Over the decades, Cash's sound, forged on his very first single at Sun, has proven a remarkably spacious and fertile ground in which to develop his genre-bounding songbook. Given the depth and breadth of his catalog, a compilation, such as "The Essential Johnny Cash" serves as a Cliff's Notes introduction, while the original LPs provide richly detailed chapters in the story of an American musical icon.