Johnny Cash is unquestionably one of the best performers in contemporary music to ever hit the stage. Since his death, numerous records have been released in hopes of carrying on Cash's legacy as a great performer. So it only makes sense that a live collection should be released. The Great Lost Performance is pretty much exactly what it says it is.
Featuring the Carter Family
One of the things that helped to make Johnny Cash so much fun to watch were his collaborations with wife June and the Carter Family. The presence of the Carter girls on these lost performances is truly fantastic. Most notably, their backup vocals on the gospel tune, "A Wonderful Time Up There" and "Life's Railway to Heaven."Earlier this year, another retrospective was released collecting Cash's gospel recordings, but the performances included on this live record are far more notable, largely due to the contributions from the Carters.
Johny Cash's Greatest Hits
It's not easy to translate a live performance onto tape. Often, so much of the great live energy is lost. That's not the case on The Great Lost Performances, where the chugging energy of "Folsom Prison Blues" feels just as electrifying as it would in a live performance. Recorded in 1990, it's hard to believe this performance is from the end of Cash's life, as there is so much youthful energy in it."I don't want to lose track of where I'm trying to go," he muses during the banter preceding "Sunday Morning Coming Down," which he dedicates to Kris Kristofferson. Indeed, the whole record is full of Cash's reckoning banter. Some of the strongest moments come from "Sunday Morning," "Pickin' Time," "What is Man," "Tennessee Flat Top Box," and "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
The Bottom Line
At this point, there's not a lot of Johnny Cash that hasn't been heard. The songs on here are nothing new. It's the candid between-song banter that most drives this album. Knowing what we know now, that Cash would pass away little more than a decade later, his banter is often prophetic, albeit humorous.The Great Lost Performance is exactly what it says it is: a great performance by one of the greatest Americana performers to have lived.
