Johnny Cash is generally remembered in one of three phases of his career. The first phase was his introduction to the public with his Sun records and Opry debut. The second phase starts as the 1960s ends with his chart topping prison recordings and his television show. The third phase comes much later, in 1993 with his American Recordings with producer Rick Rubin.
The space in between the second and third phases saw Cash struggling in his career and although he continued to record, only a handful broke the top ten album charts and No. 1 singles came few and far between. Cash stayed in the public conscious with his annual Christmas Specials and roles in television shows and movies throughout the 1970s and ’80s.
In the ’80s Cash joined forces with fellow aging outlaws Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson as the Highwaymen and returned to the charts with a song of the same name. The group toured internationally while a second single barely cracked the top15.
As the ’90s began Cash was in a spot unlike any he had been in before. Chart reaction to his albums was slow or non-existent. He was touring consistently, but was reduced to taking bookings in much smaller venues and reducing the size of his road shows.
The early ’90s also saw the boom of country artists moving to Branson to remedy this problem by building theaters where they could guarantee a given number of shows per year. In 1991 Cash entered into a contract to build his own theater to be called “Cash Country,” although the plans would never come to fruition as the developer was in over his head.
It wasn’t that the public, or the industry, had forgotten him entirely. In 1991 he was honored by the Grammy organization with the Living Legends Award. (He would be honored the next year with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
The Cash For Kenya DVD takes place during this time period, recorded live in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on September 17, 1991. The concert was a benefit put on by Cash’s longtime friend Jack Shaw. Shaw, a minister in Johnstown, often traveled with Cash and wanted to raise money to build a hospital and education center in Nakuru, Kenya to help in the fight against AIDS. Cash volunteered to headline a concert to help raise money for the cause.
The concert, which took place at Greater Johnstown Christian Fellowship Church, leans, as would be expected for such a setting, a little more to the gospel-tinged songs in Cash’s catalog. The show is essentially divided into three sections. In the first section Cash is joined by the Carter Family, June, Helen and Anita, as he runs through a few “venue appropriate” selections including “A Thing Called Love,” “Peace In The Valley” and “The Greatest Cowboy Of Them All,” which he had recorded a few years earlier with Waylon Jennings on their album together, Heroes. Cash also performs “Man In White,” a song he suggests hadn’t been performed live before that.
At the conclusion of “Man In White” Cash notes as the Carter Family leave the stage that he generally starts a show with, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash” and with that the band launches into “Folsom Prison Blues.” The band runs through a funky version of “Get Rhythm” before Cash tells the story leading into “Five Feet High And Rising” and segueing into “Pickin’ Time.” Cash is then joined by June for “Beautiful Life,” “Jackson” and “If I Were A Carpenter.”
For the next section, Cash turns the stage over to the Carter Family who run through several family classics ending with “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” joined by John Carter Cash. The finale comes as the crew run through “Angel Band.”
It is interesting to watch Cash in this period of his life, a period of transition between an artist who had recently released his last album on Mercury (The Mystery Of Life) and wouldn’t record again until his “re-discovery” and critically acclaimed American Recording.
But even with these business pressures he must have felt, Cash appears in good spirits, joking with the band and June throughout the show. One poignant moment comes as Cash is segueing from “Five Feet High And Rising” to “Pickin’ Time” by talking about advice given to him by his mother, Carrie. A constant source of encouragement and moral guidance, she had passed away only months earlier, in May of 1991. The loss fresh on his mind and heart, you can tell there is a void left in his life just from the fondness in his speech.
In light of other Cash releases of late, this concert stands in stark contrast with the recent Legacy Edition release of the concert at Folsom Prison. The fact that Cash is equally comfortable in front of an audience of hardened convicts and an audience of churchgoers speaks volumes about the appeal of Cash as an artist and a man.
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Heads up! Scientists said Thursday(9-24-2009) that a new AIDS vaccine, the first ever declared to protect a significant minority of humans against the disease, would be studied to answer two fundamental questions: why it worked in some people but not in others, and why those infected despite vaccination got no benefit at all. I I so glad to know that more people are becoming aware and then maybe we can put a stop this now and forever!
Branson has definitely become the Vegas for country stars, a place where they are guaranteed to have enough patrons to fill the house every night.