Johnny Cash Giveaway!!!!!!

The lovely folks at Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings sent me over some previously unreleased Johnny Cash tracks to give away to you...making this the first official giveaway from The Mountain Tempo blog! What is it? Well, there's a 99% chance you've either seen Joaquin Phoenix portray John R. Cash in Walk The Line as he's about to perform to the Folsom Prison inmates OR have heard the actual live album. Columbia/Legacy released a new double disc + DVD of Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison featuring handfuls of previously unreleased recordings from the TWO shows he actually delivered to the inmates. The double disc includes unissued performances by road mates Elvis Perkins, June Carter and the Statler Brothers as well as radio announcer Hugh Cherry introducing Cash before the famous "Hello I'm Johnny Cash."

Johnny Cash Intro into Folsom Prison Blues


This two-disc CD covers Cash's 36 performances during both Folsom shows, 16 of them unissued until now. Aside from Cash's powerhouse staples, some of the highlights I got excited to see were the actual opening performances by Carl Perkins performing "Blue Suede Shoes," the hit Elvis ran away with, Cash and Carter dueting on "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" and Hugh Cherry's introduction of Johnny and his father.

If you want this double disc covering The Man In Black's two shows at Folsom Prison either comment on this post or email me (bodie*at*themountaintempo*dot*com). Remember that if you comment on this post, I must be able to contact you, so make sure you're registered on blogger.com. I'll compile all names and draw a winner early next week.

Long Black Veil: 101

Here's a song we all know and whether it was sung by David Gray, Dave Matthews, Bruce Springsteen or the hoards of others in the recent years...it actually goes further back than the 90s, 80s and yes, even the 70s.

Even before the song was covered by the likes of Joan Baez (1963), Bill Monroe (1970) and Mick Jagger with the Chieftains (1995), the song has a bit more to it than even they contributed. Most music followers that dig through that song, come to find out that the version made famous by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash in 1965 was actually a spin-off of Cash's earlier version taken from Folsom Prison Blues. I even thought Cash was the original. Recently, I found out that the song was recorded in Nashville back in 1959, six years before Cash's version, by country singer Lefty Frizell who took the song to #6 on the charts.

"Long Black Veil" was written by Danny Dill with Marijohn Wilkin who claim three sources for the inspiration to the song (thanks Wiki):
1. A legend of a mysterious veiled woman who visited the grave of Italian silent film actor, sex symbol and icon of the 1920's, Rudolph Valentino, who died at an abnormally early age.
2. An unsolved murder of a local priest around the time the song was penned.
3. A recording of "God Walks These Hills With Me" by Red Foley

So...three for 3. Here are three versions of "Long Black Veil" as heard through the decades. If any of you have the Frizell version, I'd be much obliged.

Cash & Co.

Jagger & Co.

Dave & Co.

And now you know.

Whitey Ford Sings the Folsom Prison Blues

I'm guessing if you're in love with the Man in Black's original styles and traditional sound, half of you will absolutely despise this post. The other half will get a kick out of churning projects featuring artists putting new spins on Johnny Cash staples.

Rumor has it that Snoop Dogg is contributing to the album Johnny Cash Remixed with a version of "I Walk The Line," to be released October 14th. In the meantime, Everlast, Grammy winner and former House of Pain front man, just released the video for his upcoming single covering Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." As a huge fan of Johnny Cash, I'm going to take the side of "change" and say that I think Everlast did a uniquely crisp cover of this song. Cash certainly doesn't need more publicity or mainstream coverage to solidify his stature as a music legend, but it's fun to watch classic songs re-emerge and transgress different genres. Regardless of your opinion on Everlast's take on the song, it proves once again that Cash is still completely relevant in today's music scene.

Without further ado, I'll let you take a listen to Everlast covering the Man In Black. This version of "Folsom Prison Blues" features accompanying rhythm from "Insane In The Brain" by Cypress Hill and will be released in September on Everlast's new album, Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford on his own label, Martyr Inc.

Everlast - Folsom Prison Blues

750 years of history: Scarborough Fair to Josh Ritter

Isn’t it sometimes odd how small the world is with all of our small networks and connections? I did a bit of research about some of my favorite artists and found a unique family tree that roots in England circa 1253 and connects my favorite artist (Paul Simon) with Bob Dylan, Sam Bush, Johnny Cash and Josh Ritter. I’m sure it would keep branching if I did more research but I’ll give you a concise timeline below and how I was excited to know that my favorite artist directly influenced one of my new favorites, Josh Ritter.

Ready? Here we go, in reverse chronological order:

One of my favorite artists of the past few years is Josh Ritter, a young singer-songwriter who has been dubbed by many (consultants, me, Rolling Stone writers, critics, bloggers across the web, fellow artists…) as the best songwriter of “our” generation. During a recent interview, he said he picked up the guitar and birthed a career the moment he heard Johnny Cash join Bob Dylan (another favorite of mine) in the re-recording of “Girl From The North Country”/”Girl Of The North Country” off of Dylan’s 1969 album, Nashville Skyline. I could go on and on about this song and the history it has in terms of contributors, writers, changes of verses, and Dylan’s multiple versions…but let’s not open another can of worms.

As a side note, let’s involve bluegrass now. Sam Bush, a staple in the bluegrass world, became popular with a cover of Dylan and Cash’s version of this song. I know Sam Bush has a barrage of songs, but it’s hard to deny this song brought him extra record sales and more fans.

When researching Dylan’s song that inspired Ritter, I came across the name of Martin Carthy, a British musician, who I knew had connections to Paul Simon’s emergence. I found out that Dylan’s lyrics and melody in “Girl From The North County” were inspired by Martin Carthy’s arrangement of “Scarborough Fair.” In fact, Dylan sings a direct line from Carthy’s version with “remember me to the one who lives there; she once was a true love of mine.” Two years after Dylan’s lines made vinyl, Martin Carthy met Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in London to teach them his arrangement of the now-popular “Scarborough Fair.”

Remember, this song was not penned by Simon and Garfunkel OR Martin Carthy…it was only arranged by one and made popular by the duo (trio). “Scarborough Fair” is a traditional English ballad dating from 1253 when King Henry III granted the village/resort of Scarborough to hold a “fair” each summer, allowing tradesmen from multiple countries to market and trade goods of all sorts in a common location. Now, if my mom did her research, she’d come to find out that “parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme” actually have deeper meanings and may not have painted them in our kitchen.

750 years after King Henry III initiated Scarborough’s Fair, Josh Ritter sang “Bone of Song” on his 2003 Hello Starling album, from Signature Sounds Records. When Ritter sings this song live, he often dedicates it to Johnny Cash.

Josh Ritter - Bone of Song

If you like Josh Ritter or this song, I’m just guessing you’ll like Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and probably others like Ray Lamontagne, Amos Lee, The Frames, Glen Hansard, Conor Oberst, Griffin House and the lighter side of The Boss (Bruce Springsteen). Want more references?…listen to this song and research: Osiris, Kathleen Mavourneen, Magnificat…