Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar Songs Ranked
Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! is the debut album by American recording artist Johnny Cash, released on October 11, 1957. The album contained four of his hit singles: “I Walk the Line,” “Cry! Cry! Cry!,” “So Doggone Lonesome,” and “Folsom Prison Blues.” It was re-issued on July 23, 2002, as an expanded edition, under the label Varèse Vintage, containing five bonus tracks, three being alternate versions of tracks already on the original LP. In 2012, Columbia Records reissued the album with 16 additional non-album Sun Records tracks as part of its 63-disc Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection box set. In 2017, 60 years after the original release, the album was remastered under the title Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! (Definitive Expanded Remastered Edition). This was one of the first albums ever issued on Sam Phillips’ Sun Records label. Here are all of Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar songs ranked.
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12. Doin’ My Time
“Cash is an essential musical conductor (in the electric sense) of folk and popular music of the 20th century: the train sound and metaphors, the prison as the human condition, the defiantly amoral murder ballads – these are stapels of Nick Cave because they are staples of Cash because they were staples of Hank Williams because they were staples of the old wretched blues and folk masters of yore.”
11. Remember Me
“Cash added a subjective metaphysical punch to the murder ballads, stayed always just below danceable in his rhythms and his spark lives on. You did your time, Johnny!”
10. Folsom Prison Blues
“‘Folsom Prison Blues’ offers up the iconic lyric, “When I was just a baby my mama told me, Son, Always be a good boy, don’t ever play with guns, But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” later performed at Folsom Prison itself and resulting in a loud cheer from the prisoners. “
9. Cry, Cry, Cry
“Though it may be a contentious statement, I would rate this album higher than the debut release from then stablemate, Elvis Presley, which is a great album, but somehow more contrived and, as a whole, not as well conceived.”
See more: Johnny Cash Albums Ranked
8. The Wreck of the Old ’97
“He sings about the life of ordinary Americans in the country, about prison, trains, con men and love. The simple guitar chords and plucked bass notes, along with his low, tongue-in-cheek rendering of the sad or humorous lyrics are part of American history.”
7. I Walk the Line
” I Walk the Line is a promise to be faithful to his first wife Vivian Liberto – a promise he didn’t keep. The key moves with each verse, twice a quarter up, then back.”
6. If the Good Lord’s Willing
“Music is timeless,naturally but I wonder has ever anybody stop to think how much this man did with what is basically very limited voice and simple music approach – where others belted and soared and showed off huge voices,Cash held his own within two-three notes (deep and very deep) and music,well it is effective but he never ever went for gimmicks – with Cash it was always his guitar and few spare instruments in the background.”
See more: Johnny Cash Songs Ranked
5. Country Boy
“On the Varese re-issue It would appear that the version of ‘”Country Boy’, may well not be the one on the original release, it’s still a good version though.”
4. I Was There When It Happened
“With His Hot and Blue Guitar may be the country legends debut album yet it showcase such prowess in its guitar work, experience in its lyricism and confidence in its performances that you’d be excused to think Johnny Cash must have released at least a few albums before this. This is surely one of the finest and most influential country albums of all time and it’s instrumentation and song-writing holds up impeccably well, even today.”
3. I Heard That Lonesome Whistle
“I Heard That Lonesome Whistle” is a strong track that has a maddeningly slow tempo and overly simplistic guitar solo and song structure. It is a testament of Cash’s vocal ability to bring life to otherwise mediocre tracks.”
2. So Doggone Lonesome
“Like many successful artists, CASH was influenced by some serious tragic events especially when his brother was killed in a bizarre table saw accident which led him to the world of gospel music where he honed his talents to escape the sorrow.”
1. The Rock Island Line
“Cash bursts on the scene with his back then unique brand that was neither quite traditional country nor quite pure rollicking rockabilly – too twangy for the former, too chugging for the latter. His country gospel roots are evident, and what makes this album an obvious hit back then and an endurig classic for now is the equal awareness of trad roots and new developments that themselves were not innovative but just the logical extension of ‚new‘ folk music.”
