I wasn’t sure if I would review this album, but it is a complete LP released during Johnny’s tenure at Columbia, so why not?
Sings with the B.C. Goodpasture Christian School is one of the rarest entries in his catalogue. Goodpasture Christian School was founded in 1966 in Madison, TN, named after a famous preacher. Google Maps locates it about 18 minutes from Johnny’s home and I’m assuming the album is a product of his son John Carter Cash’s attendance there. Regardless, one way or another, this local school convinced Johnny to sing on their school LP!
Knowing this is a bunch of high school kids playing under the direction of their music teacher, it’s not really fair to review in the traditional sense. There definitely won’t be a score at the end of it!
So what’s the album about? Well, it’s basically an album of hymns split into two parts. Side A is led by the band, and it’s what you’d expect of a high school brass band playing hymns. It starts with American Trilogy which, while fun to hear Cash take on this number, can’t really touch the Elvis classic. But at least a new song in Cash’s repertoire. Then, a medley of Will The Circle Be Unbroken with Daddy Sang Bass, so a nice tribute to Cash’s own writing. And then Everything is Beautiful, which in the original version by Ray Stevens feature his own kids’ school choir. There’s also an instrumental that while not including Cash features some pretty funky guitar for a school band.
The second side is led by the school choir and taps into six hymns that should all be familiar to Cash devotee: Amazing Grace, Sweet By and By, When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, Precious Memories, Old Rugged Cross, and Rock of Ages. For the most part these fall into what I call the “sentimental hymns” category. All of these were recorded by Cash at least once in his career, and many of them appear on My Mother’s Hymn Book, one of Cash’s final albums. He also tackled the Old Rugged Cross with Emmylou Harris in the same year as the Goodpasture album, although that version remained unreleased until the 2000s.
Because this was a local independent release, copies often fetch over $100. But if you’re dying to hear Johnny’s overdubbed vocals on high school hymn arrangements, start saving your pennies!
(BTW – If this was my school, I would have been so excited!)
Raise My Glass to the B-Side 