Tag: country music

Art, Country Music, Creativity, Culture, Folk, Modern Life, Music, Songwriting2 Comments

Johnny Cash’s Music Lives On

Gary Furr
Johnny_Cash_-_Out_Among_the_Stars
Johnny Cash material released this week.

Johnny Cash, in many ways, lived as a prism of

the last half of the twentieth century,

at least a Southern version of that.

 

Johnny Cash died on September 12, 2003, going out in a blaze of recording glory with his last work, four albums titles “American I-IV”.  Ever experimenting and interacting with the musical world, the series, produced with the help of Rick Rubin, was highly acclaimed.  “Hurt,” and the accompanying video, appearing three months before June’s death and seven before Johnny himself succumbed to diabetes.

The brilliant video serves as a summary and eulogy for the man in black.  But apparently it was not the end of his recording career.  This week the world is meeting the music of Johnny Cash once again.  “Out Among the Stars,” a never-released album of songs recorded in 1984, was unearthed by his son and released to the public.  I just got it and am listening through.

Continue reading “Johnny Cash’s Music Lives On”

Art, Christianity, Country Music, Jesus, Music, Spirituality, Theology and Life4 Comments

Lessons from JC (Johnny Cash)

Gary Furr

A new friend from New York reminded me of the Cash bio I read a few years back.  Like everyone, I loved  “Walk the Line,” the bio-pic of the life and love of Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash that came out years ago.  It is not a true biography, really.  Robert Streissguth’s JOHNNY CASH: THE BIOGRAPHY is where you get more than the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version. Johnny’s story was, of course, about a many coming out of hard times, his well-known descent into drugs and alcohol that ruined his first marriage and nearly destroyed his career … Continue reading Lessons from JC (Johnny Cash)

Art, Bluegrass, Country Music, Folk, Music, Old-time music

Wade Mainer, Uncle Vance and This Old Guitar

Gary Furr

Wade Mainer died this week at the age of 104.  A mountain banjo player who came out of the mountains of Weaverville, NC, Wade and his brother J. E. were part of my life even though I never met either one of them.  They split up and had separate careers after 1936, and were a big part of the foundation of what Bill Monroe fused into “bluegrass” music.  Wade became the more famous of the two, playing the White House for President Franklin Roosevelt. Uncle Vance Furr, my Daddy’s oldest brother, died at the age of 74.  He lived, all … Continue reading Wade Mainer, Uncle Vance and This Old Guitar

Blues, Books, Christianity, Country Music, Culture, Hope, Music

I Was Thinking Tonight About Elvis, Hank, and Gillian

Gary Furr

I was reading about Hank Williams, went to hear Gillian Welch, and wound up thinking about Elvis Presley.  Just finished the late Paul Hemphill’s wonderful biography of Hank Williams, Sr.   This being “the Year of Alabama Music,” I have decided to do a study of some great Alabama musicians.  It’s a pretty great list.  Anyway, sometimes secular musicians, especially in folk, country and blues, are windows into what Stephen J. Nichols calls, “the gospel in a minor key”  I call it, “the rest of creation that never finds its way into church.”  We’re pretty long on the resurrection side of … Continue reading I Was Thinking Tonight About Elvis, Hank, and Gillian