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Johnny Cash – Ultimate Gospel
Johnny Cash passed away on September 12, 2003. If you were to judge exclusively by the number of CD’s that suddenly became available in the wake of his death, his legendary status as a hero of both rock and roll and country music grew instantly and exponentially.
This huge amount of posthumous releases usually dedicated themselves to portraying multiple aspects of Cash’s monumental talent, as filtered through his even more remarkable persona. The fact is that there were so many releases that it overwhelmed much of his audience. Cash has always suffered (or celebrated) an incredible number of compilations and collections (allmusic.com features a list that contains over 300 entries for compilations alone!), so it becomes nearly impossible to sift through all of this to determine what is essential and what is peripheral, redundant or extravagant.
For all of the above reasons, I fear that “Ultimate Gospel” may fall through the cracks and be overlooked, and that would be a shame. It is a plainspoken title for a beautiful, plainspoken concept album that handpicks Gospel favorites from nearly three decades of Cash’s career. Before he sang rock and roll or country music, Cash considered himself a Gospel singer. In fact, he ‘failed’ his first audition for Sun Records by relying exclusively on Gospel songs.
Despite this rather inauspicious beginning, Cash has often returned to his roots as a Gospel singer, and some of his most heartfelt performances fall into this category. He revisited some of these selections on the (also posthumous) collection entitled “My Mother’s Hymnbook,” but while that collection features stark arrangements with nothing but Cash’s guitar for accompaniment, these versions are considerably more elaborate, sometimes including lush instrumental accompaniment and a backing chorus.
Some of the best selections here (“I Was There When It Happened” and “Belshazzar”) date back to the 1950s, when he was still in Memphis and perceived as a rockabilly artist, while the latter-day selections from the mid-seventies capture an artist remaining true to himself in spite of commercial trends (“In the Sweet By and By” and “Amazing Grace”).
In the tidal wave of Johnny Cash collections that are flooding the market, it would be easy to dismiss this as something less than essential, but I’m certain that Johnny Cash himself would consider this to be some of his best work. If you are interested in Cash’s Gospel side and wish to buy only one collection, I strongly recommend that you choose “Ultimate Gospel.”
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