I’ve listened to Rockabilly Blues and still don’t know what to think of it. I was excited when I first found this in a dusty used LP bin. Johnny looks awesome on the cover, and the title promises a great return to form. Plus, I saw that not only was there a Nick Lowe song on it, it was produced by Nick Lowe! I’m pretty sure this was my first 80s Johnny Cash album I purchased, and I was excited. If Elvis Costello’s bass player was involved – that singer of wry tunes like Cruel to be Kind – there had to be something interesting there. Plus, Nick was part of the post-punk London scene in which a genuine rockabilly movement was starting up (Brain Setzer’s Stray Cats were recording their first album that year, for example).
But what lies inside, is a real mixed bag. First, the album’s not really produced by Lowe, just his own song, Without Love. The bulk of the album was produced by Johnny’s piano player Earl Poole Ball. Given his barrelhouse style, then maybe we’d get some real cowboy music here, even more so given the rest of the songs were produced by Cowboy Jack Clement, who engineered Johnny’s stuff back in the Sun days. But no, this is a really slick 80s country album.
Now, that’s not an entirely bad thing. Opening track Cold Lonesome Morning, written by Cash, is fantastic. It’s opening stomp recalls Big River, but played through a modern country lens. Then, part way through the song the most fiery guitar we’ve ever had on a Cash song breaks in. Where did that come from? The session notes list as many as five guitar players on each song here. Ok… we’re a long way from Memphis 1955, aren’t we? The only electric player listed is Bob Wooten, who replaced Luther Perkins following his death in 1969, but Wooten has never played hot leads. Jerry Hensley is still in the band, and we’ve heard him play some more rock oriented leads (especially if you’ve seen the complete Prague concert online). But dig a little deeper and you’ll see an important new name in the mix:
Marty Stuart.
Yep, that Marty Stuart. The mandolin protégé picked up by Lester Flatt at the age of 12. Now in his early 20s he was already a road warrior and master of pretty much any instrument you put in his hands. Marty stayed on with the Nashville Grass for a year after Lester’s death and even got Johnny to sing on their first album without Lester. I’m assuming that was the point where Johnny brought Marty into his band. Unfortunately, I can’t find footage of Marty in Cash’s band before 1981, but there he is burning down the house on Clarence White’s famed b-bender Telecaster. That must be him dancing all over this opening tune.
The fun continues on Nick Lowe’s Without Love too. Another slick number, but a good song with great country guitar. Unfortunately, that’s where it goes downhill. We now get Johnny’s own W-O-M-A-N that reminds us how “the F-E-M-A-L-E can turn a B-O-Y into a M-A-N.” Yikes. And it seems from here, Johnny just can’t find a half-decent song. Another of his offerings, She’s a Go-er, is filled with more hokey imagery.
This is not to say that there aren’t some fine songwriters here. Billy Joe Shaver provides two songs. It Ain’t Nothing New Babe starts off promising with weeping dobro (another new element for Cash), but the lyrics don’t hold up. His other contribution, The Cowboy Who Started The Fight is the tale of a cowboy dying in a woman’s arms, which is fine enough subject matter for Cash. Filled with Shaver’s signature down-to-earth imagery, it sadly just gets creepy with lines like, “the lady gave up without question/The trophy she saved all her life.” Sorry, not for me.
There’s John Prine on here too, but unfortunately The Twentieth Century is Almost Over might have been relevant in 1980, but it just sounds dated now… especially because of the synthesizer lead! We have heard a synth once before on a Cash album, but now we are on the beginning of a new path in which modern sounds will be dumped all over Cash’s music. Which brings me to Kris Kristofferson’s fine ballad The Last Time which has cheesy 80s keyboards all over it. By the time we get to the end of the album, we have a fun duet with June courtesy of son-in-law Rodney Crowell, but One Way Rider isn’t as strong as their classics and is too little, too late on an already mediocre album.
Now, I’ve saved one song for last: Rockabilly Blues (Texas 1955). One would think that a song like this would anchor the album and point to Cash recapturing past glories. But there’s a gaping hole on this album that shows exactly what’s wrong. Where is Marshall Grant?
If you know a bit about Cash’s story, you’ll know that by 1980 his life was a mess. He was three years back into addiction. June moved to England to stay with her daughter Carlene and her husband Nick Lowe (hence the Cash connection). And for some reason he saw it fit to fire Marshall Grant, the only living member of the Tennessee Two, who had been with Cash from the very beginning. Not only that, but he has the gall to sing a song about 1955 rockabilly that names Marshall by name. How sad.
I’m not one to hang onto the past, or resist modernization. But I also recognize that we all have our strengths. What is it that makes Cash stand out above any other country artist? It’s that voice over a minimal background. That’s what worked so well with the Tennessee Two, where Johnny’s guitar playing was reduced to a simple clickety clack rhythm and all you had was Marshall’s simple bass and Luther’s strange little leads. Magic. I would argue, too, that while he had many other great periods and sounds, they all had a certain space and minimalism to them, even 1979’s modern layered Silver album.
With Rockabilly Blues we have the introduction of Cash’s new band: the Great Eighties Eight. And despite the phenomenal talent in the band – Earl’s piano, Marty’s guitar – Johnny does not need eight people in his band. He does not need four guitar players!
So in 1980 we have a revolutionary change in Cash’s sound and it’s not a good thing. Great talent. A mixed bag of songs. And a loss of the minimalism that made him great. How sad.
2.5/5 – if only because of the first two songs and a few moments across the rest of the album.
Other Songs from the Era:
- We Oughta Be Ashamed – Duet recorded with Elvis Costello in Nick Lowe and Carlene Carter’s London home. Released on The Legend box set.
- The Love That Never Failed – session outtake released on the Star Spangled Country compilation. A pleasant enough ballad. Except for the flute. Yes, flute.
- I’m Never Gonna Roam Again – session outtake released on The Legend box set. A decent song with cheesy keyboards.
- You Just Can’t Beat Jesus Christ – an awesome outtake from the Jack Clement sessions featuring Billy Joe Shaver.
- Song of the Patriot – A – yep – patriotic single-only release that’s more of the same of the album.
- Billy Brown – A home demo released on House of Cash.
- I’m Never Gonna Roam Again/I’ll Go Somewhere and Sing My Songs Again/Wildwood in the Pines/A Winding Stream/Paradise/The Wayworn Travelller/I’m an Old Cowhand/Down in the Valley/Who’s Gene Autry? – more acoustic demos from Personal File, More Songs from Johnny’s Personal File, House of Cash, and The Legend box set. These are all solid, especially Prine’s Paradise.
- Johnny Cash: The First 25 Years – A retrospective television special featuring lots of hits. Released on DVD in 2006
Raise My Glass to the B-Side 