Johnny Cash - Live From Austin TX

A master of live, as well as life

Cash’s January 1987 appearance at Austin City Limits marked two milestones for the event’s history. Firstly, though Fats Domino’s appearance the previous year beat Cash as the first bona fide legend to grace the stage, Cash was the first country legend to perform (and that acknowledges Merle Haggard’s ’85 appearance). Secondly, Cash made the often sterile Live From Austin TX format more warm and intimate than it had ever been before. Master of his live craft (his warm voice and conversational banter alone fills the hall), by ’87 Cash had also had years of buffing up his touring revue, thanks, in no small part, to having run his own TV show. However, while he could never be as soulless and slick as the popularised country music of the late 80s, there is something of the too-assured and polished in the set. At the time, Cash was in need of musical direction and, while he’s completely at home before an adoring audience, in the grand scheme of things, this holds little relevance outside of being just a nice live show.

New West | NW 6085

Reviewed by Jason Draper
<< Back to Issue 332