Additional information
Personnel: Johnny Cash (vocals, guitar); Luther Perkins (guitar); Don Helms (steel guitar); Marvin Hughes (piano); Marshall Grant (bass); Murray M. "Buddy" Harman Jr. (drums). Producer: Don Law. Reissue producer: Al Quaglieri. Includes liner notes by Johnny Whiteside. Digitally remastered by Mark Wilder and Seth Foster (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York). When Johnny Cash left Sun Records for Columbia, it was to pursue his desired artistic directions, one of which was his strong interest in gospel music, as borne out by his second Columbia release HYMNS. This may have been the first gospel album for Cash (who was one of many Southern country and rockabilly artists with a faith-based passion for the style), but it would be followed by many others over the course of his long career. Still, it's probably the best of Cash's spiritual albums, as its place in his chronology places it the closest to his early, raw sound. Sure, there's church choir-style background harmony here, but the core of the sound is still the famed boom-chicka-boom of Cash and his Tennessee Two. Whether Cash is engaging in celebratory call-and-response on "It Was Jesus" (whose mono EP version is also included here as a bonus track) or delivering a Luke the Drifter-like monologue on "Are All the Children In," he rarely sounded more committed than he does when expressing his religious convictions here for the first time.
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