Throwback Thursday: Johnny Cash

This week, we’re playing a set of covers of Johnny Cash songs for Throwback Thursday.

Johnny Cash’s career spanned about half a century and included over 1,ooo songs and dozens of albums.  His incredible body of work crossed genres and tastes and influenced countless artists.  His early period is associated with rockabilly and rock and roll in the 1950s.  This period through the 60′s is probably his best known, due in know small part to the award winning biopic “Walk the Line,” which had its focus on that part of his career.  Despite that, though, Cash managed to be a relevant face and even icon up until his death in 2003.  He experienced a resurgence in fame in the 90′s and spent the rest of his life more or less as a living legend.

Although I’ve come to appreciate his entire catalog, my introduction to Johnny Cash came from the tail end of his career.  Specifically, like a lot of people my age, the first contact with Cash was his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” from his American series with Rick Rubin.  Everything that can be said about that song and video already has been said, but suffice to say it was striking enough to look deeper into Cash’s catalog.  What I found there has made him one of my favorite artists of all time.

With that American series and throughout his career, Johnny Cash recorded an incredible amount of covers.  We’re flipping that a little bit today.  Join us 5pm to hear a few covers of his songs from Brandi Carlile, Rhett Miller, and Carolina Chocolate Drops.

By Bentley J. Holt

If you liked this, check out:
Throwback Thursday: Art Garfunkel