Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar by Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar, the debut album from the man they'd come to call the Man in Black, hit the racks on October 11, 1957, on Sam Phillips' Sun Records, one of the very first long-players that label ever put out. Phillips produced, and the record gathered up the hit singles that had already made Cash a name: "I Walk the Line", "Cry! Cry! Cry!", "So Doggone Lonesome" and "Folsom Prison Blues".

Put it on today and what knocks you flat is how little there is to it, and how hard it hits anyway. The rhythm chugs like a freight train, the guitar twangs dry as dust, and over it all rolls that deep, steady bass-baritone, a voice that sounds a good deal older than the man singing. It's country music, but it came up out of the same Memphis rockabilly ferment that was shaking the whole country loose, and "Folsom Prison Blues" became the song Cash would reach for right after saying hello at his concerts.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.