Johnny Cash – I Walk The Line (1964) [MFSL 2020] [SACD / Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab – UDSACD 2197]

Title: Johnny Cash – I Walk The Line (1964) [MFSL 2020]
Genre: Country
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Originally released in 1964 on Columbia, produced by fellow Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Don Law, and featuring note-for-note re-recordings of several staples Johnny Cash made for Sun Records – including the title track, “Hey Porter”, and “Big River” – as well as several new originals, I Walk the Line cemented the singer’s place as the leading country artist of the era. Indeed, as the original liner notes state, “I Walk the Line offers Johnny Cash, renowned storyteller-in-song, at his creative and performing best”. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1967.

Now, for the first time in more than five decades, you can experience it in true-to-the-source mono courtesy of Mobile Fidelity’s meticulously restored reissue. Mastered from the original mono master tapes and limited to 2,500 numbered copies, the audiophile label’s hyper-clear disc broadcasts the inimitable sonics of the Man in Black’s cut-from-bedrock baritone, earnest acoustic strumming, and hand-in-glove band with utmost clarity, directness, and realism. Much has been rightly made about the sparse, deceivingly simple boom-chicka-boom sound of Cash’s righthand men, otherwise known as the Tennessee Three: bassist Marshall Grant, guitarist Luther Perkins, and drummer W.S. “Fluke” Holland. On this collectible edition of I Walk the Line, the trio’s steady, fundamental rhythms and fresh, driving beats resonate with a presence, solidity, and immediacy unavailable on any other Cash recording. Such are the advantages associated with going back to mono, which gets right to the core of the rough-and-tumble country tenor of songs such as “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line.”

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

Tracklist:

01. I Walk The Line
02. Bad News
03. Folsom Prison Blues
04. Give My Love To Rose
05. Hey Porter
06. I Still Miss Someone
07. Understand Your Man
08. The Wreck Of The Old 97
09. Still In Town
10. Big River
11. Goodbye Little Darlin’ Goodbye
12. Troublesome Waters

Note:

Mastered by Shawn R. Britton at Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Sebastopol, CA.

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