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List Price: $11.98 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 92315
Released: August 27, 2002 |
| Our Price: $8.94 |
| Used Price: $3.50 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Sings the Ballads of the True West Track Listing:
1. Hiawatha's Vision
2. The Road To Kaintuck
3. The Shifting, Whispering Sands Part I
4. The Ballad Of Boot Hill
5. I Ride An Old Paint
6. Hardin Wouldn't Run
7. Mister Garfield
8. The Streets Of Laredo
9. Johnny Reb
10. A Letter From Home
11. Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie
12. Mean As Hell
13. Sam Hall
14. 25 Minutes To Go
15. The Blizzard
16. Sweet Betsy From Pike
17. Green Grow The Lilacs
18. Stampede
19. The Shifting, Whispering Sands Part II
20. Reflections
21. Rodeo Hand (Previously Unreleased)
22. Stampede (Alternate Instrumental)
Editorial Review:
Though not among Johnny Cash's strongest overall efforts, True West is not a completely failed experiment, either. Originally released in 1965 as a double album, it weaves Cash's narrations and original compositions with traditional songs and interpretations of other writers' material to draw one man's portrait of the Old West. Cash turns in some of his sturdiest vocals, virtually inhabiting the likes of "I Ride an Old Paint" and Carl Perkins's morbid "Ballad of Boot Hill." And he gets points for not scrubbing up some of the more raggedy old traditional lyrics. But there's often too much extraneous stuff--background singers, strings, sound effects--and while they are clearly to Cash's specifications and executed seamlessly, his own weather-beaten voice alone would usually have been more effective; for all the drama in his vocals, too much of this exasperating set sounds like background music. By the way, this album's mythmaking "Hardin Wouldn't Run" provided the basis for Bob Dylan's mythmaking "John Wesley Harding." The 2002 reissue adds a pair of bonus tracks. --John Morthland
Sings the Ballads of the True West Reviews:
Johnny Cash's western album 
2009-01-07 - For all Johnny Cash fans the "Ballads of the True West" album is a must have. It was never a top seller that I know of, but for those who like genuine traditional western music, nobody does it better rhan Johnny.
I was unable to purchase or order this album through any of my local music stores and I had a new copy of it in my hands a few days after ordering it from Amazon.
Stephen
Exactly what I ordered
2007-12-23 - I always wanted this CD as my album was worn out. Shipping was a little slow and I had to send an email to get the CD finally shipped out. I was happy to get what I wanted though.
Sings Ballads of True West
2007-02-01 - This is probably my favorite Johnny Cash album. I first purchased it on a reel-to-reel tape in the early sixties. I love this CD even more. Thanks.
Incredible performance, brings the Old West to life!
2006-12-10 - These songs are great in and of themselves, representing the values and struggles of another, better time, the days of the Old West.
However, Johnny Cash's performance is just amazing. This is one of my favorite albums of all time and I cannnot recommend it highly enough to fans of the Old West and Johnny Cash.
I think, after listening to this album, that "Little Doggies" may be the best song ever written. Do yourself a favor, get this album.
Ambitious, but dated in its style... 
2004-05-06 - Being a Cash fan since 1956, when I was 11, I think I can say that for 1965, this was a pretty good double-LP release that increased Johnny's stature as a folk artist, not just a commercial country or rockabilly performer. Judged by today's standards and tastes, however, it suffers quite a bit. There is too much recitation, both poems and prose narration. There is too much "production" in many of the songs (compare his stark "Bury Me Not" on American Recordings One to the version here.) If any other country performer had TALKED so much on an album, I'd rate it much lower...but Johnny, of course, had a magnificent speaking voice. Still, we fans want him singing, not reciting. And when he sings here, his own interpretions are fine. He had input, but not performing help, from Tex Ritter, Peter LaFarge and Ramblin' Jack Elliot when he was preparing this record, and if those guys had chimed in with backing vocals instead of The Statler Brothers and the Anita Kerr Singers, this effort would be highly prized by folk fans today. Alas, who knew back then that the public would end up preferring just Cash and one guitar on his discs, instead of a whole bunch of supporters? If you like Western songs, and lack some of these in your collection, this is a good price for what you get. I wouldn't recommend it as a person's first Johnny Cash purchase, or even his 10th. Somewhere after that, go ahead, because it doesn't stink...it just isn't the very best of Mr. Cash. One needs his early Sun sides, one of his first three Columbia releases, one of the prison albums, and one or more of the four late-career discs produced by Rick Rubin ahead of "Ballads of the True West." And perhaps "Bitter Tears", full of Indian protest tunes written by LaFarge, before getting this one, too.
