Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two - Radio Broadcasts 1956-59 (2018)

There's an amazing twang and reverb on these 1956 sessions. They should have just let the band run through their entire repertoire. The Sun singles don't sound like this. The freshness and vitality of the new blasts through these recordings. They are quite awesome (despite the crackles) and I say that as someone who only owns a single Cash cd. If you know anyone who is a big Johnny Cash fan get this for them, you will make their day.

You can hear Sun recording artiste Johnny Cash perform all six sides of his first three singles, released on the label. Cry! Cry! Cry! b/w Hey Porter! released on June 21, 1955, So Doggone Lonesome b/w Folsom Prison Blues released on December 15, 1955 and I Walk The Line b/w Get Rhythm released on May 1, 1956. Johnny attempts his version of Rock Island Line, then follows it appropriately with an old time gospel cover. The third show on this set is from 1959, a year after Johnny had left the Sun label because of money issues and Sam Phillips refusal to allow him to record gospel music.

Country Style USA was a radio program syndicated by the US Army Band and Recruiting Services and broadcast as a recruiting tool for them. The series consisted of 15-minute radio and film programs produced from 1957 to 1960. To encourage people to listen to them they included sessions by the top country stars of the day. Each year 13 episodes were produced in Nashville, Tennessee, and distributed to local radio and TV stations.

Guest Star was produced by the U.S. Treasury Department in the 1940s and 1950s as a public service program. It featured a different often top-name "guest star" (singer, actor, comedian) each week to promote the sales of savings bonds.

The three shows compromise eleven performances and were originally seeded by ‘brownstien’ on the Dime tracker, 1 July 2006. Then by YardGnome’on the Traders Den, 21 August, 2006. They were then reseeded by Aikowolf (on the Traders Den) in 2015 who discovered the correct show dates. The microgaps between tracks exist on all three of those seeds.

Johnny's first live radio recording is included on Colombia's official bootleg series 'Bootleg Vol II - From Memphis To Hollywood'. He performs four tracks: Wide Open Road, One More Ride, Luther's Boogie and Belshazzar (Dylan fans will recognize this one). Columbia have wisely included the complete KWEM in Memphis show (broadcast on August 4, 1955) with the radio announcements and adverts, giving it a sense of time and place. It's a more primitive recording than the unreleased bootleg.

Johnny Cash & the Tennessee Two returned to Country Style USA Radio in 1957 and that performance including: Stay All Night Stay A Little Longer, There You Go, Give My Love To Rose and Home Of The Blues is available on the DVD: 'Various - Country Style USA: Season 2'

Tracklist:
1. Hey Porter
2. I Walk The Line
3. Rock Island Line
4. So Doggone Lonesome
5. Folsom Prison Blues
6. Cry Cry Cry
7. I Was There When It Happened
8. Get Rhythm
9. Country Boy
10. Don’t Take Your Guns To Town
11. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot