Cash started composing at a very young age about the railroad (trains) as we hear "HEY, PORTER!" ~ the pure enjoyment of writing a song and recording comes through with flying colors "CRY, CRY, CRY!", "MY TREASURE", "SO DOGGONE LONESOME", "YOU'RE THE NEAREST THING TO HEAVEN", "HOME OF THE BLUES" and "PORT OF LONELY HEARTS" sheds some light on the inner feelings of this great human being and entertainer.

Hats off to Varese Records, Cary E. Mansfield and Bill Dahl for this wonderful trip back into the past. This release is just the way we like 'em. Now we can relive those early years when we enjoyed "The Man in Black" ~ aka Mr. Johnny Cash...gotta love it!

Total Time: 38:50 on 17 Tracks ~ Varese 64682 ~ (7/29/2003)


Fine post-Sun collection of Sun sides   August 26, 2003
hyperbolium (Earth, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Long after Johnny Cash left Sun Records for Columbia, Sun owner Sam Phillips continued reissuing the seminal sides he'd recorded before the jump. This 1961 collection collected a dozen singles sides (some A-sides, some B-sides), ranging from his first Sun single, the beautifully stark and emotional "Cry! Cry! Cry!" b/w "Hey, Porter!" to tracks later overdubbed (by producer Jack Clement, no doubt) with a vocal chorus ("Sugartime" "Down the Street to 301").

Also included are several classic Cash tic-tac sides, including "Life Goes On" and "So Doggone Lonesome," and four of the bonus tracks present original undubbed versions of Jack Clement's constructions. Stripping away even the subtle overdubbing work of "My Treasure" reveals Cash the singer-songwriter, picking his acoustic guitar as accompaniment. Similarly, the undubbed master of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me" shows off the beautiful simplicity of Cash with the Tennessee Two. The fifth bonus track is a 1955 take of Marty Robbins' "I Couldn't Keep From Crying," shelved at the time.

This is a good overview of the arc Cash traversed at Sun. It includes the rawness of his earliest sides, as well as the manicured overdubs with which Sun tried to crack the pop charts. The songlist intersects many other Sun-era releases, but the collection of titles here makes a really nice album spin.