johnny cash

Having made Johnny Cash hip again, the producer Rick Rubin applied his less-is-more magic to the squarest crooner of the lot. The result? A set of the most gorgeous, understated, deliciously pained songs you will hear in any decade. 99.

I’m going so fast that I can’t slow down   -Caleb Followill

 

Every once in awhile, I'll be groggy, tired, entering the BART on my way to work when suddenly I hear a voice rising from the bottom of the escalator that makes me feel excited, re-enchanted even, for another day in San Francisco. It's a deep voice that fills up the entire station and melts away my workaday blues. It sounds eerily close the ghost cry of Johnny Cash.  

This is a weird little post for Friday. Weird because I haven't ever written about an Italian band before. And weird because the band in question plays an experimental brand of americana that has more in common with Ennio Morricone (in fact they signe dup his iconic whistler to appear on this record) than it does with Johnny Cash. But don't worry these guys have been anointed by John Convertino and Joey Burns (Calexico) so rest assured you're getting some pretty cool shit.  

It's never easy to map out an entire decade in music. So, in constructing the "Decade in Music" interactive timeline , we sought to shape it with some of the bigger tent-pole trends, news (Elton John performing with Eminem) and groundbreaking changes in the industry, business and technology (Napster, the iPod). We also wanted to highlight albums (Britney Spears, Danger Mouse, Radiohead) that took a snapshot of the era, as well as deaths (Ray Charles, Johnny Cash) that affected everyone.  

My Life as a Secret Agent is the new single from Barnes-based indie rockers Shabby Rogue, writes Will Gore. It is the first single to be taken from the band's second album, By Hook and By Crook, due for release in early 2010. Band member Johnny Famous tells us about the new tunes, embarrassing coat hangers, and who would make the bill at his dream festival. Introduce the band.  

First up on Sunday 22 November; Reinhard Kleist , author of the great I see A Darkness , the biography of Johnny Cash, published recently by Self Made Hero is in conversation with Charles Shaar Murray. I See A Darkness was much loved by both myself and Joe – see Joe's review for more details. On Monday 23 November, Comica welcome Flemish cartoonist, Willy Linthout in conversation with Michael Rosen.  

Most teens gripe when their dad gives them a to-do list. Of course, most teens don't have Johnny Cash for a father. So when The Man in Black handed his eldest daughter a list of 100 Essential Country Songs to learn back in 1973, the budding 18-year-old songwriter knew she had something special.  

Parts of Norah Jones's 2007 album Not Too Late sounded rather like a scrubbed-up, housetrained Tom Waits, so it's no surprise that for this follow-up, she enlisted the services of producer Jacquire King in an attempt to obtain the "balance between beautiful and rough" that he secured for Waits's Mule Variations. To help achieve that effect, they've drafted in a session crew that includes drummers James Gadson (Bill Withers, Al Green) and Joey Waronker (REM) and guitarists Marc Ribot (Tom Waits) and Smoke  

Arts Against Abuse will present a concert featuring singer songwriters Craig Bickhardt, Lizanne Knott and JD Malone on Saturday night at 7:30 at the Delaware County Institute of Science, 11 Veterans Square. The concert will benefit the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County. Bickhardt has written songs that have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, B. B. King, Alison Krauss and dozens of other artists.