The Holy Land by Johnny Cash

The Holy Land, Johnny Cash's eighteenth album and his third gospel record, came out on Columbia in 1969, and it's a travelogue as much as an LP. Cash visited Israel and the West Bank with his wife, June Carter Cash, and carried a portable tape recorder to the holy sites in and around Jerusalem, narrating what he saw. Most of the album is those on-the-spot recordings. Bob Johnston produced, and the job was finished at Columbia's Nashville studio, where overdubs went on and the gospel songs were cut.

Cash wrote all but three of the songs, but the single came from Carl Perkins: "Daddy Sang Bass", which sat at the top of the country chart for six weeks. It's also the last time Luther Perkins, the Tennessee Two's original lead guitarist, played on a Cash record before his death. Cash would come back to the idea twice more, on The Gospel Road and Return to the Promised Land.

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