Johnny Cash – The Outtakes

He was one of America’s top-selling male vocalists in 2006, which could reflect an expanded audience from the success of the Walk The Line biopic and/or the dearth of decent contemporary fare. Bear Family, who extensively explored Cash’s Sun and early Columbia catalogues in the past, recently introduced a new series dedicated strictly to outtakes, one being a revealing, rewarding examination of the Everly Brothers’ Cadence years. This three-disc, 111-track collection offers nearly every Cash Sun alternate take, overdub or false start, opening with what remains an exhilarating moment in Cash’s musical emergence: 1954’s “Wide Open Road” from his first Sun session. It’s no surprise that a group as elemental as the Tennessee Two tended to blow takes. They were, after all, a band whose musical limitations were also their strength, so their approaches to most numbers vary little. Casual fans won’t be moved by this, but it offers fire-breathing completists new insight into how Cash recorded in his Memphis days.