 [Larger view] | Johnny Cash - Country Christmas
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Average user rating:  | |
 About time | |
| Johnny Cash croaks his way through Weather-Channel arrangements of such little-known Christmas songs as "Silent Night," "Joy to the World," and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." It's about time somebody recorded these numbers. Seriously, Cash's singing voice--while barely there--is pleasant as ever, and the arrangements are well-done in an instantly-forgettable sense. Your ears probably won't even notice that they've been there. A few tracks provide a little novelty, including the schmaltzy Johnny Bond-Tex Ritter narrative, "Here Was a Man," which Cash puts across in his usual convincing manner. Only Cash could make such kitsch sound dignified. And there's "Figgy Pudding," which sounds like an outtake from a Doctor Demento Christmas CD--fun, though the silliness would work better for me were it not so obviously planned. Note how the recording was cut right where the cutting-up begins. Slick, pleasant, and seamless, this collection is a worthy addition to any collection of unnecessary CDs. | |
| Cash muddied by overproduction | |
| Cash's post-sun, pre-american recordings career has truckloads of great cuts, but too often, especially with 80s-early 90s recordings his voice is stuck into what feels like a casio keyboard preset. This is my problem with this Christmas CD. Cash's voice is cluttered up by hokey background music and there's way too much female chorus on every song. It's like putting Marlon Brando in the middle of a Kathy Lee christmas special skit. Johnny always gets 5 stars. Rest of the CD: one or none. I wish sun would have let him kick out a Christmas LP with just the Tennessee two playing a sparse background. | |
 Cash on Christmas | |
| I'd like to know what the one reviewer thought he was going to hear when he got this CD. Not "classic Cash"? I think it's very much classic Cash... just doing Christmas songs. The words "Johnny Cash Country Christmas" on the cover should be a clue to this. For the most part they perform the songs in a 'traditional' style. The only exception is "Figgy Pudding", which I actually find to be rather annoying as a screeching woman continues to ask for her snack. On a couple of the songs Cash performs very little or not at all, letting the womens' group take control. Not that that's a bad thing, though. If you love Cash's bass and want a nice, simple Christmas CD this would probably be a good buy for you. |
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