Johnny Cash

Now that Johnny Cash's final years with Rick Rubin are fully documented, it's no surprise that others are trawling their vaults to keep the Man in Black's legacy alive. Unlike the first volume of this series, which took the unusual approach of gathering unreleased material from the early '70s to the early '80s, From Memphis To Hollywood goes back to the very beginning, starting with Cash's first radio broadcast and his Sun Records demos. This material will be a revelation for all Cash fans, showing the extremely green country boy still adjusting to life as a performer. The Sun demos, in particular, show him singing in a much sweeter voice than what was captured on record. A second disc of rarities from his early years on Columbia is equally fascinating and in spite of the sugary backing choruses that characterized that era, Cash is able to adapt a wide range of material, from Bob Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings" to an unused theme to the James Bond film Thunderball to his now-fully-formed persona. There are sure to be further instalments in this series, but From Memphis To Hollywood will be hard to top.