Johnny Cash – Johnny Cash Is Coming To Town/Boom Chicka Boom/Water From The Wells Of Home/The Mystery Of Life
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Posted On May 1, 2003
At the time these four albums were originally released, Johnny Cash was in his 50s, already having weathered countless changes in the musical marketplace over the decades since his defining emergence in the 1950s. Each of these titles tries to strike a balance between some sort of honest artistic portraiture and commercial realities.
Water From The Wells Of Home (1988) presents Johnny Cash with ten different singing partners. While that recipe has made for some laughable results from others (just try sitting through Frank Sinatra’s career-closing Duets, and there were two volumes of those), Cash comes off well. The presentation is dignified throughout, with fairly unobtrusive arrangements, allowing the guests to illuminate what a singular presence Cash is.
Johnny Cash Is Coming To Town (1987) and Boom Chicka Boom (1989) are more straightforward offerings that rise and fall on the strength of the material. Furthermore, they share a bothersome and dated approach to production, coming off at best with assembly-line sterile precision, at worst with bleating horns and reverb-drenched chorus background vocals. An Elvis Costello song was included on each: “The Big Light” chokes on the aforementioned flotsam, but “Hidden Shame” hits the nail right on the head.
The Mystery Of Life (1991) is another up-and-down affair, though it actually chugs along fairly well. It features remakes from his past including “Hey Porter”, which sparkles, and the synth-festooned “Beans For Breakfast”, which annoys. In general, the uptempo numbers succeed more than the slower ones, primarily because on the latter, the overuse of reverb on Cash’s voice is nakedly apparent. It keeps him floating in digital atmospherics, when the production should place him squarely in our living rooms. He sings with authority, but the full force of his presence sounds like it has become tangled in lace curtains.
