Johnny Cash
The Complete Columbia Album Collection
Available on Sony/Legacy (Dec. 4, 2012)

Many a jukebox was packed full of Johnny Cash’s Columbia albums throughout the latter half of the last century. Sony/Legacy has now compiled nearly 60 percent of the Man In Black’s work, covering more than 30 years and 60 discs worth of Cash’s music and fit it into a significantly more compact box.

Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection gathers 63 discs of Cash albums, concerts, songs and soundtracks. From his debut with the label The Fabulous Johnny Cash in 1958 to Highwayman 2 with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson in 1990, everything Cash released on Columbia is included here. If that’s not enough for the Cash completist, there’s several discs never released in the U.S. until now.

While the box set isn’t a definitive career collection-his Sun Records and American Recordings albums are not included-it’s as close as one could hope to get. Several Sun singles are found within, and live albums recorded in a Swedish prison, Prague, London, and New York are presented for the first time.

All of the classics and standards can be found here, including  At Folsom Prison, the excellent Ride This Train concept album, as well as all of chart topping singles. But the real gems are those you don’t hear on the radio and would have a hard time finding in record bins.  Hearing cash speak Swedish between songs is as big a treat as his familiar baritone on “I Walk the Line.” While there is bound to be chaff among the wheat in a career as prolific as Johnny Cash’s, the often overlooked works more than make up for the plentiful nostalgia pieces he produced in the ‘80s. And one can track a career that ventured from country to Americana, gospel to rock and roll, Christmas tunes to children’s songs, comedy to uplifting spirituals.

The box set preserves the original album art and liner notes, formatted to fit a CD. There’s also a 200 page booklet to accompany the decades’ worth of music.

 
Lee Hazlewood
The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes and Backsides (1968-71)
Available now on Light in the Attic Records (May 1, 2012)

When one is remembered for collaboration, as Lee Hazlewood often is, it can be easy to overlook the contributions he made all on his own. Light in the Attic Records is illuminating the work he did in his fertile late '60s era with The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides (1968-71).

Late '60s glamour queen Nancy Sinatra and guitar virtuoso Duane Eddy, with whom Hazlewood scored numerous hits, are nowhere to be found. Instead his booming baritone and sparse, haunting arrangements take center stage. Collected from his solo output on LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries) the anthology includes the previously unreleased “I Just Learned to Run” and yes, a few duets, featuring the likes of Ann-Margaret, Suzi Jane Hokom and Nina Lizell.

Echo-laden yet understated, Hazlewood’s baritone fills the space like a charming, but dangerous party guest. He’ll put you at ease with stories of cowboys, grand ladies and dreams. In the next note, he’ll send chills down your spine with edgier tales of heartbroken cowboys, heartbreaking ladies and whiskey, and pill-induced nightmares.

That duality is evident with “Califia (Stone Rider)” a dark tune that sees Hazlewood’s sing-spoken drawl trade places with Suzi Jane Hokom in haunting fashion. “The Bed” has the narrator aching for a lost lover, telling her his side of the bed is now nothing but a cold-sweat soaked haven for bad dreams. Yet in the very next track he pairs with Ann-Margaret singing an eerily happy tune about finding a nice place to “Sleep in the Grass.”

Light in the Attic has put together a collection that’s part greatest hits collection, part deep cuts for the devoted fan. While it avoids his famous production and duets with Sinatra, it does include some of the best cuts from his studio albums. The result is a nice introduction to an influential late-60s hit maker that also rewards long time fans, all without taking the easy route to get there.