Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

Personal File (Columbia/Legacy)

Johnny Cash

Man in Black: Live in Denmark 1971 (CMV/Legacy)

Johnny Cash was at his zenith in 1971, still on his "A Boy Named Sue" roll and brimming with midlife vigor. Man in Black: Live in Denmark 1971 DVD features him in full showman mode to a clueless Danish audience while the Tennessee Three, Carl Perkins, June Carter, Mother Maybelle Carter, the Statler Brothers, and Anita and Helen Carter excel in an hourlong performance with him, especially in the finale "Children Go Where I Send Thee." That's good, because excellence is all you get here: no extras, photo gallery, off-stage chatter, or interview. Still, Man in Black makes a worthy chronological companion to Personal File because it's easy to look at the 1971 Cash and picture him at home in 1973, recording the songs for his own pleasure and no one else's. There's no "Folsom Prison Blues" or "Ring of Fire" among the 49 tracks of the 2-CD Personal File, just tender, heartfelt takes of traditional country on one disc and spirituals on the other. Some of these songs hint at Cash's Celtic roots ("Galway Bay," "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen") and some are quaint folk tunes ("The Engineer's Dying Child"). Cash includes music by contemporaries, influences, and even family, such as the Louvin Brothers, Johnny Horton, Doug Kershaw, AP Carter, John Prine, and Rodney Crowell. Even when the gospel material sounds preachy ("My Children Walk in Truth," "Sanctified"), Cash's inner rebel rears its head, siding with Mary Magdalene in "If Jesus Ever Loved a Woman" and ringing true on "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." Better yet, this collection of unreleased songs avoids the air of grave-digging, as have the spectacular string of posthumous recordings released by Legacy. Packaged like the original studio tape boxes, with magnificent new liner notes by Greil Marcus, Personal File is a class act and a welcome addition to the House of Cash.

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