Silver | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 13, 1979 | |||
Recorded | February 14 – May 23, 1979 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 32:05 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Brian Ahern | |||
Johnny Cash chronology | ||||
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Singles from Silver | ||||
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Silver is the 25th anniversary studio album by American country singer Johnny Cash, [1] released on Columbia Records in 1979. It peaked at #28 on the Billboard albums chart. "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" peaked at #2 on the singles chart; the two other singles, "Bull Rider" and "I'll Say It's True" (with George Jones on background vocals), had reached #66 and #42, respectively. Recordings of "Cocaine Blues" had previously appeared on At Folsom Prison and Now, There Was a Song! , under the title "Transfusion Blues" on the latter. The album was produced by Brian Ahern, who controversially introduced digital elements into the songs to the disapproval of some listeners. This is the last album that featured bassist Marshall Grant, longtime Cash collaborator in Tennessee Two. He departed from Cash's band the following year.
Silver was re-released in 2002 through Legacy Recordings, with remakes of two early Cash songs, "I Still Miss Someone" and "I Got Stripes," as bonus tracks; both are duets with George Jones.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Rolling Stone wrote: "Silver boasts the strongest song selection of any Cash disc in probably a decade. Born-againers will be disappointed to learn that there are absolutely no born-again tunes. Instead, the singer seems to add extra relish to his rerecording of 'Cocaine Blues'." [3]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore" | Jean Ritchie | 3:17 |
2. | "Lonesome to the Bone" | Cash | 2:40 |
3. | "Bull Rider" | Rodney Crowell | 3:12 |
4. | "I'll Say It's True" (with George Jones) | Cash | 2:48 |
5. | "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" | Stan Jones | 3:49 |
6. | "Cocaine Blues" | T. J. "Red" Arnall | 3:21 |
7. | "Muddy Waters" | Phil Rosenthal | 3:29 |
8. | "West Canterbury Subdivision Blues" | Jack Clement | 3:48 |
9. | "Lately I Been Leanin' Toward the Blues" | Billy Joe Shaver | 2:37 |
10. | "I'm Gonna Sit on the Porch and Pick on My Old Guitar" | Cash | 3:04 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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11. | "I Still Miss Someone" (with George Jones) | J. Cash, Roy Cash | 2:52 |
12. | "I Got Stripes" (with George Jones) | Cash, Charlie Williams | 2:16 |
Album - Billboard (United States)
Year | Chart | Position |
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1979 | Country Albums | 28 |
Singles - Billboard (United States)
Year | Single | Chart | Position |
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1979 | "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" | Country Singles | 2 |
1979 | "I'll Say It's Her" | Country Singles | 42 |
1980 | "Bull Rider" | Country Singles | 66 |
Roses in the Snow is the seventh studio album by country music artist Emmylou Harris, released in 1980. While Harris' previous release, 1979's Blue Kentucky Girl, featured traditional, straight-ahead country, Roses in the Snow found Harris performing bluegrass-inspired music, with material by Flatt and Scruggs, Paul Simon, The Carter Family, and Johnny Cash. Cash, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, The Whites, Ricky Skaggs, Willie Nelson and Tony Rice made guest appearances. "Wayfaring Stranger" was released as the first single in 1980 and went to #7 on the Billboard Country charts. The second single, a remake of a Simon & Garfunkel song, "The Boxer", reached #13. Backing musicians included Albert Lee and Jerry Douglas.
Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden is a 1969 recording of a Johnny Cash concert at Madison Square Garden. It was released in 2002.
Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash is the sixteenth album by singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1963. This album collects tracks from singles and an EP released between 1959 and 1963, Cash's first years on the Columbia label, and marked the first release of these tracks in LP format, with the exception of "I Still Miss Someone," which had previously appeared on the 1958 album The Fabulous Johnny Cash. "Ring of Fire", one of Cash's most famous tracks, made its first LP appearance here. Ring of Fire was the first #1 album when Billboard debuted their Country Album Chart on January 11, 1964. Certified Gold on February 11, 1965 by the RIAA, it earned him his first Gold LP. It stands as the only Columbia "greatest hits" collection to be included in the Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection box set.
I Walk the Line is the nineteenth studio album by singer and songwriter Johnny Cash, featuring a handful of recent songs alongside new recordings of previous hits from his previous tenure at Sun Records. It was released on Columbia Records in 1964. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1967.
Johnny Cash Sings the Ballads of the True West is a concept double album and the 22nd overall album released by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1965. Covering twenty individual songs, the album, as its title suggests, contains various ballads and other songs on topics related to the history of the American Old West. This includes Carl Perkins' "The Ballad of Boot Hill", "Streets of Laredo", and the sole single from the album, "Mr. Garfield", describing the shock of the population after the assassination of President James Garfield. One of the songs, "25 Minutes to Go", would later be performed at Folsom Prison and appear on Cash's famous At Folsom Prison recording in 1968, while the melody of "Streets of Laredo" would be recycled for the song "The Walls of a Prison" featured on Cash's album From Sea to Shining Sea.
Man in Black is the 38th overall album by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1971. Many of the songs on the album contain political references, either broad or specific, while the title song refers both to Cash's tendency to wear black at live shows and to the tumultuous times in which the song was created, implying the Vietnam War. The album's name also eventually became Cash's informal nickname, given to him by the public. Two tracks — "Man in Black" and "Singin' in Vietnam Talkin' Blues" — were released as singles, the former peaking at No. 3 on the Country chart. The first track features Billy Graham.
The Mystery of Life is the 77th album by country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1991, and his last for Mercury Records. The songs featured are culled from both recent sessions and from leftovers from Cash's first Mercury session in 1986 for the album Johnny Cash is Coming to Town.
Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town is the 73rd album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1987, and his first for Mercury Records. It was re-released in 2003, paired with Boom Chicka Boom on a single CD. "Sixteen Tons" was previously a hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford, "The Big Light" is an Elvis Costello song from his album King of America, released the previous year and "Let Him Roll" is from Guy Clark's debut, Old No. 1. The album reached #36 on the country charts, while the only released single, "The Night Hank Williams Came to Town", peaked at #43.
Johnny 99 is the 69th album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1983. It is notable for including two covers of Bruce Springsteen songs from Springsteen's 1982 album Nebraska, "Highway Patrolman" and "Johnny 99." "I'm Ragged but I'm Right," a George Jones song, was a minor hit, reaching No. 75. Johnny 99 is generally regarded as a strong release at a point in Cash's career which is considered to be the least successful; it was also the second-to-last solo album released by Cash on Columbia, prior to his move to Mercury Records. Hoyt Axton sings background on "Highway Patrolman" and "Joshua Gone Barbados". "New Cut Road" had been a relatively successful single for Bobby Bare in 1981; Paul Kennerley's "Brand New Dance" would go on to be covered, among others, by Emmylou Harris on her 1990 album of the same name.
Rockabilly Blues is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1980. Highlights include "Cold Lonesome Morning," which had some minor chart success, "Without Love," by his son-in-law, Nick Lowe, and a cover of the witty "The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over." The first two of the aforementioned songs were the only singles from the album, though "Without Love" hardly enjoyed any chart success, peaking at No. 78. "The Twentieth Century is Almost Over" was re-recorded five years later by Cash and Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, collectively known as The Highwaymen, on their first album entitled Highwayman, though it was, in essence, a duet with Nelson.
Gone Girl is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1978. It features the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet song "No Expectations", the original "It Comes and Goes" and Rodney Crowell's "A Song for the Life", as well as a version of Kenny Rogers' famous single "The Gambler", released just a month before Gone Girl. Three singles from the album, "Gone Girl", "I Will Rock and Roll with You" and "It'll Be Her", were released, but did not reach the country chart's top 20.
I Would Like to See You Again is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1978. The title track peaked at #12 on the singles chart, while "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang" reached #2; the album itself peaked at #23. The album features a pair of duets with Waylon Jennings, one of which was the "There Ain't No Good Chain Gang" single; it was one of Cash's first collaborations with Jennings, and the two recorded songs together throughout the 1980s, including a separate album entitled Heroes. Cash and Jennings would also work together as The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.
The Rambler is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1977 on Columbia Records. A concept album about travelling, its songs, in between, include dialogue between Cash and hitchhikers picked up or other people he meets during the album's cross-country trip. It is the last, and one of the few Johnny Cash albums to only feature songs written by Cash himself. It is also his last non-religious concept album, and was included on the Bear Family box set Come Along and Ride This Train. The Rambler reached #31 on the country album charts; the two singles, "Lady" and "After the Ball", had minor chart success.
The Last Gunfighter Ballad is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1977. Notable tracks include the title track, "Far Side Banks of Jordan" and "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine", the latter of which features Cash's brother Tommy Cash. The title track was the album's only single, reaching #38 on the country charts; it tells the tale of an aging gunslinger who finds himself unable to deal with the modern way of life.
Johnny Cash på Österåker is a live album by country singer Johnny Cash released on Columbia Records in 1973, making it his 43rd overall release. The album features Cash's concert at the Österåker Prison in Sweden held on October 3, 1972. Its counterparts in concept are the more notable At Folsom Prison (1968), At San Quentin (1969), and A Concert Behind Prison Walls (1976). Unlike aforementioned, På Österåker does not contain any of Cash's most well-known songs; it does, however, include a version of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee". "Orleans Parish Prison" was released as a single, faring rather poorly on the charts. Cash had previously recorded "I Saw a Man" for his 1959 album, Hymns by Johnny Cash.
The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me is the 48th album by country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1974 on Columbia Records. Although credited to Cash alone, the album includes solo performances by his daughter Rosanne Cash, and stepdaughters Rosie Nix Adams and Carlene Carter, predating the launch of their own solo careers. Two songs on the album were written by Kris Kristofferson, while "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" is a re-recording of a highly successful Cash single, his first smash hit for Columbia from back in 1958. "Keep on the Sunny Side" had previously been recorded for the early 1960s Carter Family album of the same title, on which Cash had provided guest vocals. "Father and Daughter " is a cover version of a well-known Cat Stevens song and a duet with Cash's stepdaughter, Rosie Nix Adams, with slight changes in lyrics; a version of the same song would be released in 2003 on Unearthed, as a duet with Fiona Apple. June Carter Cash also performs a solo track without her husband, one of only a couple of occasions where she did this on a Johnny Cash album outside of concert recordings.
The Johnny Cash Children's Album is the 49th album by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1975 featuring recordings made between January 1972 and October 1973. As the title implies, it contains songs written for children. Among others, this includes "Tiger Whitehead", a song later released in an acoustic version on Cash's posthumous Personal File album in 2006. Most of the songs on the album had not been performed by Cash before. "Old Shep" had been performed by Elvis Presley, among others. One track recorded in 1972 was previously released on LP: "I Got a Boy " was first made available on the 1972 album International Superstar. It is a tongue-in-cheek duet between Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, about their son, John Carter Cash.
One Piece at a Time is the 54th album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1976 on Columbia Records. "One Piece at a Time," which was a #1 hit, is a humorous tale of an auto worker on the Detroit assembly line who puts together a car out of parts he swipes from the plant. "Sold Out of Flag Poles" also charted as a single, reaching #29 on the country singles charts. "Committed to Parkview", a Cash original, would be re-recorded in 1985 by Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, collectively known as The Highwaymen, on their first album, Highwayman; it is one of the few country songs sung from the perspective of a patient at a mental hospital.
The Legend is a box set by country singer Johnny Cash, released in 2005 on Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. It is one of the few multi-disc sets that contain songs recorded throughout Cash's entire career, from 1955 to 2003. Over four CDs, most of Cash's biggest hits are covered, in addition to numerous traditional compositions Cash recorded versions of, and several collaborations with other known artists, including Rosanne Cash, U2 and Bob Dylan. In keeping with Cash's persona as the Man in Black, the data surface of the discs is black. In 2006, the set won the Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. It was certified Gold on January 11, 2006, by the RIAA.
The Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family is a 2004 compilation album featuring various artists performing the work of country music pioneers The Carter Family.
February "Bull Rider"/"Lonesome to the Bone" (Columbia 1-11237) released.