Ride This Train

Occupation

• Johnny Cash, vocals, guitar
• Luther Perkins, lead guitar ( electric guitar )
• Marshall Grant, Bass
• Murray M. "Buddy" Harman, drums
• Harold B. " Shot" Jackson, steel guitar and dobro
• Johnny Western, Guitar
• Floyd Cramer, piano
• Gordon N. Terry, Fiddle

Ride This Train is the eighth studio album by the American country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in September 1960 on Columbia Records and was produced by Don Law. This is Cash's first concept album.

Songs

Already on the record sleeve mentions that it was not a question, the collection of songs about trains at Ride This Train, but a journey across America on a train. All songs are linked by small launches. These written and spoken of cash reconciliations have been backed by the sound of a moving train. Cash begins all entries with the words: " Ride this train ...", hence the title of the album. Cash used this introduction later at concerts if he wanted to take a song by a spoken text ( for example, to listen to the album At Madison Square Garden ).

The songs themselves have little in common with trains. Most of them are about the difficult life of the workers. Loading Coal deals with the mining of coal in the mine, a Lumberjack Lumberjack, Boss Jack the cotton farm and a slaveholder and Old Doc Brown a poor country doctor who dies lonely. When the last song is the first shot, does not sing in the cash, but only through talks. The so-called rhythmic speaking put cash later in other songs like A Boy Named Sue A, One Piece at a Time or Drive On (found on American Recordings ), usually coupled with a few songs.

Slow Rider is the Wild West and the adaptation of the classic cowboy songs I Ride an Old Paint. Going to Memphis is the revision of traditionals, which deals with chained prisoners. When Papa Played the Dobro is about the poverty, while Dorraine of Ponchartrain is a sad story about two lovers and was clearly influenced by classical folk play, The Lakes of Ponchartrain.

Title list

Advanced CD Edition

The album was re-released in March 2002 on CD and included four additional pieces. All four songs were recorded during the sessions of Ride This Train, however, were probably not intended for the album. The Fable of Willie Brown is about a womanizer, while Second Honeymoon is a ballad about a man who lives separated from his wife and remembers his honeymoon. Ballad of the Harp Weaver is the adaptation of a 1923 poem written by Edna St. Vincent Millay and deals with poverty and a mysterious phenomenon. Cash speaks the text. Smiling Bill McCall is about a radio DJ who wants to take his life because he does not know how his audience react when they find out how he really looks like. Second Honeymoon and Smiling Bill McCall in 1960 released as a single.

Achievements

Some of the songs reached the singles charts:

• Album ( Country )
• Album 1960
• Johnny Cash album
• Concept album