There are fewer greater names in country/roots music than John Carter Cash, son of legends June Carter and Johnny Cash and grandson of the great Mother Maybelle Carter. So his musical judgement and associations must not only be respected but applauded, especially when they serve to preserve a sometimes-neglected genre of music.
And this is exactly what Carter Cash achieves with the recent release of his latest project Pilgrimage to Rising Fawn, an album which celebrates the contribution of legendary musician Norman Blake to old timey/roots/ bluegrass music for more than half a century.
Carter Cash is himself a famed musician, having not only produced individual albums for both his parents but subsequently recordings by some of the biggest names in music like Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Elvis Costello.
And most of this music is produced by his own production company Cash Cabin Enterprises which is also centered around the Cash Cabin Studio, the famous private recording studio in Tennessee where Johnny and June Carter Cash recorded much of their later music. It sits on 40-acres of wood and fields, populated by European Fallow Deer and ponds stocked with Bass, Beam and Catfish.
It therefore certainly means something when John Carter Cash should pack up equipment from one of America’s most state-of-the-art recording studios and ship it to Rising Fawn in Georgia, the home of Blake and his wife Nancy. Norman, now aged 86, is not only one of the great steel-string guitar flatpickers, known for his love of 12-fret guitars, but also an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist - mandolin, banjo, fiddle, dobro - and vocalist. Nancy is a respected musician in her own right and the pair would perform as Norman & Nancy Blake, a band which received a host of Grammy nominations over the years.
But perhaps Norman’s greatest claim to fame was that he toured and recorded with John Carter Cash’s legendary father for more than a decade. He also became a member of the TV house band on the Johnny Cash Show.
So perhaps it is no surprise that Carter Cash not only took some of his most sophisticated recording gear in this Pilgrimage to Rising Fawn, but recruited family members for the tribute album, including his wife Ana Cristina Cash, his son Joseph Cash and Johnny’s stepdaughter Carlene Carter. Add some of the more prominent Nashville musicians – dobro great Jerry Douglas, big-name Jamie Hartford, Native American star Bill Miller and singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson – and the outcome is somewhat of a foregone conclusion.
For Pilgrimage to Rising Fawn not only serves to celebrate Norman Blake’s long contribution to the various country genres over the years but it also preserves the simple purity of roots and old timey music.
Norman is credited on all 10 tracks, though he is solo on only one - a slapstick version of the children’s ditty “Uncle Noah’s Ark” in which Blake has as much fun with his guitar as he does with the whimsical lyrics. And John Carter Cash fittingly tops and tails with the live response by all-in-sundry in the studio.
There is, of course, no denying the influence of the Cash dynasty in this project. Blake covers three of Johnny’s signature songs. There is “Mystery of Life, the title track to his 1991 album, then “Life’s Railway to Heaven” and thirdly the glorious “Give My Love to Rose,” one of the best Cash compositions that he first recorded in 1957 with the Tennessee Two at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records.
Jamie Hartford leads Blake on a magical rendition of “Mystery of Life” and here the bonds too are binding. Hartford played with Cash in some “(The) Mystery of Life” recording sessions and his father, the legendary singer-songwriter “Riverboat” John Hartford, teamed up with Blake in the one group or another over many years. The pair would later collaborate on the Grammy-winning blockbuster “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack.
It is no surprise that John Carter Cash joins Blake and Carlene Carter on a truly rambunctious version of “Life’s Railway to Heaven.” For this was an old gospel song which was unearthed from unreleased material in the Cash vaults after his death in 2003 and included in the posthumous 2006 collection Bootleg Volume 1: Personal File. Carter Cash was Executive Producer of this project, as he was – and still is – for several other rare Cash collections in recent years.
The honour of joining Blake on “Give My Love to Rose” goes to Johnny and June’s eldest grandson Joseph Cash, who proves to be a chip off the old proverbial. This classic is regarded by many – including Bruce Springsteen – as among Cash’s very finest. Aided by the Jerry Douglas dobro, Joseph Cash treats the sad tale with refined reverence just as the great man himself had done so with his numerous recordings of “Rose” over the years.
Not surprisingly, the Carter Family get due mention when a snippet of “Keep On The Sunny Side” is cleverly integrated into a sophisticated string-led version of the popular lullaby “Hi-Eenktum Daddy-O.” Carter Cash is this time joined by wife Ana Cristina Cash, an acclaimed singer in her own right. She takes the lead then harmonizes beautifully as a trio. It is simply old timey/roots music at its finest
Jamie Hartford’s second contribution comes – surprise/surprise – on one of his father’s songs “Howard Hughes Blues” which was recorded by John Hartford back in 1972 on his Morning Bugle album. And guess who played guitar and mandolin on that recording? Yes, none other, than one Norman Blake.
Jamey Johnson is known as a New Traditionalist, spear-heading young singers who emerged in the new century as successful contemporary interpreters of classic country. And he quite rightfully gets to both top and tail an album seeking to preserve the basic roots of country.
Johnson opens with a bouncy, fiddle-infused version of the old American standard “Alabama Jubilee,” covered by countless artists over more than a century. And he ends with what can be no better tribute to Norman Blake than a soulful, elegant version of “Georgia On My Mind” - the State Song of the magical instrumentalist’s home state.
No lovers of roots music who next venture into Georgia will now get the tiny Dade County enclave of Rising Fawn off their minds!
Paul Cutler
Editor Crossroads – Americana Music Appreciation
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