Johnny Cash died 20 years ago this week, but I can still feel the music he made in my bones.
Whether singing his own songs or dipping into the broad catalogue of music from around the globe, Cash made everything he touched his own, whether it was a song from Soundgarden (“Rusty Cage”), Nine Inch Nails (“Hurt”), Depeche Mode (“Personal Jesus'“), or Willie Nelson (“Time of the Preacher”).
My favorite Cash song is not one of his, but his take on Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”
Cash was a musical empath. He channeled something into the songs he chose that even the songwriters did not see.
At Pop Matters in 2003, I wrote that
The key to Cash’s music, of course, is his empathy. There is a visceral, seemingly personal connection between Cash and his audience. He writes of prison and drug addiction, murder and war, poverty and spirituality in a way that makes it feel as if he is singing to each and every one of us.
“Cash took sides in his own songs, and in the songs he chose to sing,” John Nichols wrote on The Nation Web site Friday evening. “And he preferred the side of those imprisoned by the law — and by economics.”
I don’t have much more to say, except that you can read the appreciation I wrote for Pop Matters here.