Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments. New York: Schrimer Books, 1996.
Hopkins, Jerry. Elvis. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971.
Horstman, Dorothy. Sing Your Heart Out Country Boy. Nashville: Country Music Foundation Press, 1996.
Howard, Jan. Sunshine and Shadows. New York: Richardson and Steinman, 1987.
Jennings, Waylon, with Lenny Kaye. Waylon: An Autobiography. New York: Warner Books, 1996. (Chapter 17.)
Jones, George, with Tom Carter. I Lived to Tell All. New York: Villard, 1996. (Chapter 13.)
Jones, Margaret. Patsy: The Life and Times of Patsy Cline. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.
Kaplan, James. Frank: The Voice. New York: Doubleday, 2010.
Klein, George, with Chuck Crisafulli. Elvis: My Best Man. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2010.
Kleist, Reinhard. Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness. New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2007.
Knight, Peggy. Cooking in the House of Cash. Nashville: Premium Press, 2004.
———. My 33 Years Inside the House of Cash. Nashville: Premium Press, 2004.
Laird, Tracey E. W. Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Along the Red River. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (Chapter 5.)
Landau, Jon. It’s Too Late to Stop Now: A Rock and Roll Journal. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1972.
Lewis, Myra, with Murray Silver. Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis. New York: William Morrow, 1982. (Chapter 6.)
Logan, Horace, with Bill Sloan. Elvis, Hank, and Me: Making Musical History on the Louisiana Hayride. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. (Chapters 5–6.)
Louvin, Charlie, with Benjamin Whitmer. Satan Is Real. New York: It Books, 2012. (Chapter 1.)
Malone, Bill C. Country Music USA. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.
———. Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’: Country Music and the Southern Working Class. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
———. Southern Music American Music. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1979.
Marcus, Greil. Mystery Train. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1982.
Miller, Stephen. Johnny Cash: The Life of an American Icon. London: Omnibus Press, 2003. (Chapters 1, 4–5.)
Moore, Scotty, with James Dickerson. That’s Alright, Elvis. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997. (Chapters 3–6.)
Nassour, Ellis. Honky-Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2008. (Chapter 12.)
Nelson, Willie, with Bud Shrake. Willie: An Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.
Patoski, Joe Nick. Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2008.
Perkins, Carl, and David McGee. Go, Cat, Go! The Life and Times of Carl Perkins. New York: Hyperion, 1996. (Chapters 3–7, 18–20, 22–24.)
Pleasants, Henry. The Great American Popular Singers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
Richards, Keith, with James Fox. Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2010.
Rijff, Ger, comp. Long Lonely Highway: A 1950s Elvis Scrapbook. Ann Arbor: Pierian Press, 1987.
Sanjek, Russell. Pennies from Heaven: The American Popular Music Business in the Twentieth Century. New York: Da Capo Press, 1996.
Scaduto, Anthony. Bob Dylan: An Intimate Biography. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1971.
Selvin, Joel. Ricky Nelson: Idol for a Generation. Chicago: Contemporary, 1990.
Shelton, Robert. No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986.
Silverman, Jonathan. Johnny Cash and American Culture: Nine Choices. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010.
Sisk, Eileen. Buck Owens: The Biography. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2010.
Streissguth, Michael. Johnny Cash: The Biography. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2006. (Chapters 1–20, 22, 24, 26–27.)
———. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2004.
Style, Lyle E. Ain’t Got No Cigarettes: Memories of Music Legend Roger Miller. Winnipeg: Great Plains Publications, 2005. (Chapters 13–14.)
Tart, Larry. Freedom through Vigilance: History of U.S. Air Force Security Service. Vol. 2. West Conshohocken, Pa.: Infinity Publishing, 2010. (Chapter 2.)
Thomson, Graeme. The Resurrection of Johnny Cash. London: Jawbone Press, 2011. (Chapters 31–34.)
Tosches, Nick. Country: Living Legends and Dying Metaphors in America’s Biggest Music. New York: Scribners, 1985. (Chapter 8.)
———. Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story. New York: Dell Trade Paperback, 1982.
Tost, Tony. American Recordings. New York: Continuum, 2011. (Chapter 34.)
Turner, Steve. The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend. Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2004. (Chapters 1–5, 7–15, 17–27, 29, 35–36.)
Urbanski, Dave. The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash. Lake Mary, Fla.: Relevant Books, 2003. (Chapter 1.)
Wald, Elijah. Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues. New York: Amistad, 2004.
Wald, Gayle F. Shout, Sister, Shout: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Boston: Beacon Press, 2007.
Weissman, Dick. Which Side Are You On? New York: Continuum, 2005.
West, Red, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler with Steve Dunleavy. Elvis: What Happened? New York: Ballantine Books, 1977.
Whiteside, Jonny. Ramblin’ Rose: The Life and Career of Rose Maddox. Nashville: Country Music Foundation Press and Vanderbilt University Press, 1997. (Chapter 6.)
Wren, Christopher. Winners Got Scars Too: The Life and Legends of Johnny Cash. New York: Dial Press, 1971. (Chapters 1–7, 9–15, 17–22.)
Zwonitzer, Mark, and Charles Hirshberg. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002. (Chapters 11–12.)
Books—Collections
Cash by the Editors of Rolling Stone. New York: Crown, 2004. Especially: Rosanne Cash, “My Dad Johnny Cash”; Anthony DeCurtis, “Johnny Cash Won’t Back Down”; Jason Fine, “Home Sweet Home: In the Studio with Johnny Cash”; David Fricke, “The Rolling Stone Interview with Rick Rubin”; Mikal Gilmore, “The Man in Black”; Ralph Gleason, “Johnny Cash Meets Richard Nixon”; Steve Pond, “Broken Down in Branson”; and Steve Pond, “The Rolling Stone Interview: Johnny Cash.”
I Still Miss Someone. Compiled by Hugh Waddell. Nashville: Cumberland House, 2004.
Johnny Cash and Philosophy: The Burning Ring of Truth. Edited by John Huss and David Werther. Chicago: Open Court, 2008.
Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Reader. Edited by Michael Streissguth. Cambridge, Mass.: DaCapo, 2002.
Books—Photo Histories
Cash, Cindy. The Cash Family Scrapbook. New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1997.
Miller, Bill. Cash: An American Man. New York: Pocket Books, 2004.
Books—Reference
Brackett, Nathan, with Christian Hoard, eds. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York: Fireside, 2004.
Gentry, Robert. The Louisiana Hayride: The Glory Years. Vol. 1. 1948–55. Many, La: Gentry, 1998. Includes ads for every Louisiana Hayride show as well as some newspaper articles about them.
———. The Louisiana Hayride: The Glory Years. Vol. 2. 1956–60. Many, La.: Gentry, 1998.
Gordon, Robert. The King on the Road: Elvis Live on Tour 1954 to 1977. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996.
Gray, Michael, and Roger Osborne. The Elvis Atlas: A Journey through Elvis Presley’s America. New York: Henry Holt, 1996.
Guralnick, Peter, and Ernest Jorgensen. Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999.
Lewry, Peter. I’ve Been Everywhere: A Johnny Cash Chronicle. London: Helter Skelter, 2001.
Smith, John L. The Johnny Cash Discography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985.
———. The Johnny Cash Discography, 1984–1993. Westport, Conn
.: Greenwood Press, 1994.
Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Albums. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 2006.
———. Pop Memories, 1890–1954: The History of American Popular Music. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 1986.
———. Top Country Albums, 1964–2007. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 2008.
———. Top Country Songs, 1944–2005. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 2005.
———. Top Pop Singles. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 2009.
———. Top R&B Albums, 1965–1998. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 1999.
———. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles, 1942 to 2004. Menomonee Falls, Wis.: Record Research, 2004.
Booklets—From Album Box Sets
These sets provide detailed recording session information, including personnel, as well as lengthy and insightful essays about the various stages of Cash’s career at Columbia and Sun in the 1950s and 1960s.
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black, 1954–1958. Bear Family Records, 1990. Essay by Colin Escott. 5 CDs.
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black, 1959–1962. Bear Family Records, 1991. Essay by Colin Escott. 5 CDs.
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black, 1963–69 Plus. Bear Family Records, 1995. Essay by Colin Escott. 6 CDs.
Johnny Cash: Come Along and Ride This Train. Bear Family Records, 1991. Essay by Bob Allen. 4 CDs.
Cash: Unearthed. American Recordings, 2003. Text by Sylvie Simmons. 5 CDs.
Profiles and Essays
Ackerman, Paul, and staff. “Cash—Past and Present Together.” Billboard salute, May 23, 1970.
Braun, Saul. “Good Ole Boy.” Playboy, November 1970.
Carr, Patrick. “The Big Thumb.” Country Music, 1997.
Cooper, Peter, and staff. “Goodbye Mr. Cash.” Nashville Tennessean, September 13, 2003.
Corliss, Richard. “The Man in Black.” Time, September 22, 2003.
Cusic, Don, and Jennifer Bohler. “Johnny Cash–Cash Box–Silver Salute.” Cash Box, 1980.
Davis, Frances. “God’s Lonely Man.” Atlantic, March 2006.
Dearmore, Tom. “First Angry Man of Country Singers.” New York Times Sunday Magazine, September 21, 1969.
Flanagan, Bill. “Johnny Cash, American.” Musician, May 1988.
Guralnick, Peter. “John R. Cash: I Will Rock ’n’ Roll with You (If I Have To).” Country Music, July–August 1980. (Chapters 1–6.)
Kamp, David. “American Communion.” Vanity Fair, October 2006.
LaFarge, Peter. “Johnny Cash.” Sing Out! May 1965.
Linderman, Larry. “Penthouse Interview: Johnny Cash.” Penthouse, August 1975.
Martin, Gavin. “Out of the Black.” New Musical Express, May 30, 1987.
Oermann, Robert K. “Superstar Cash Still Speaks for the Heart of America.” Nashville Tennessean, April 26, 1987.
Orr, Jay. “The Man Is Back.” Nashville Tennessean, April 17, 1999.
Tosches, Nick. “Chordless in Gaza: The Second Coming of John R. Cash.” Journal of Country Music 17 (1995).
Wells, Steven. “Old, Gifted, and Black.” New Musical Express, April 27, 1991.
Wenner, Jann. “Country Tradition Goes to Heart of Dylan Songs.” Rolling Stone, May 25, 1968.
Periodicals
Of the countless newspapers and magazines that reported on Johnny Cash, the ones that I went back to repeatedly were the Nashville Tennessean, the Nashville Banner, the Memphis Press Scimitar, Billboard, Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the scores of small-town papers whose pages can be found in the Access Newspaper Archives link on the Los Angeles Public Library website. Articles of special interest are cited in the chapter listings that follow.
Chapter 1
Interviews
Joanne Cash, Johnny Cash, Kathy Cash, Rosanne Cash, Roy Cash Jr., Tommy Cash, Damon Fielder, A. J. Henson, Everett Henson, J. E. Huff, James Keach.
Websites
Myfamily.com (a website run by Everett Henson devoted to the history of the Dyess colony).
Additional sources
“American Recordings” liner notes by Johnny Cash. Contained in the album American Recordings, American Recordings record label, 1994.
“Dyess Colony Redevelopment Master Plan,” prepared by John Milner Associates, West Chester, Pa., April 2010.
“The Founding of Dyess Colony” by Pat Pittman. Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Winter 1970.
“President’s Visit Opens Centennial Celebration,” an account of Eleanor Roosevelt’s trip to Dyess in 1936, available through the Old State House Museum in Little Rock, Ark.
“Trouble in Paradise: Dyess Colony and Arkansas Politics” by Donald Holley. Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Autumn 1973.
Recordings
Deep Roots of Johnny Cash. Bear Family Records, 2006. Most of the twenty-four songs on this CD, including Jimmie Rodgers’s “The One Rose” and Vernon Dalhart’s “The Engineer’s Dying Child,” offer a sample of the music that influenced Johnny Cash as a boy in Dyess.
The Singing Brakeman: 1927–1933, Jimmie Rodgers. Bear Family. Cash’s main inspiration saluted in a six-disc box set. Includes “Hobo Bill’s Last Ride.”
Chapter 2
Background
Marty Stuart believes that Cash wrote “Folsom Prison Blues” in Germany because he heard an early version of a tape that was made on the tape recorder Cash bought in Germany. But Marshall Grant disputed that view. He said Cash didn’t write the song until well after he returned to the States. He speculated that the tape was made in Memphis.
Interviews
Johnny Cash, Rich Collins, Red Ernst, Jerry Farwell, Sylvia Flye, William Harrell, James Keach, Bob Mehaffey, Bob Moodie, Ben Perea, Orville (Wayne) Rigdon, Chuck Riley, Gayle Stelter, Larry Tart, Al Thurston.
Recordings
”Crescent City Blues” can be heard on Gordon Jenkins’s concept album Seven Dreams, a single CD which has been re-released by Basta Records. It is also on Johnny Cash: Roots and Rivers, a single CD on Hip-O.
Websites
http://6912th.org/cashpage.htm (a site that focuses on Johnny Cash’s 6912th Radio Mobile Squadron, which was stationed in Landsberg, Germany).
Chapter 3
Background
One of the haziest parts of the Johnny Cash story is how he got to Sun Records. He told at least five different versions, and none fully squared with anything Marshall Grant recounted. To make matters worse, the numbering system at Sun Records proved to be notoriously unreliable in chronicling the company’s early recording history. Because tape was expensive, Sam Phillips would often tape over something if he wasn’t planning to release it, and he would often combine tracks from various tapes onto a single tape so he could reuse the others. In the latter process, he would sometimes end up with tunes from a Cash session and, say, a Charlie Rich session or a totally unrelated radio commercial on a single tape.
To retrace the steps, I met with Grant and went over the early days in Memphis week by week, matching his earlier recollections with everything else we could find about those months in late 1954 and early 1955. During the interview, Marshall’s account often differed from what both he and John had written. He showed no reluctance to revise his timetable, however, and we came up with a schedule of events that he felt confident was “ninety-nine percent” correct.
Interviews
Joanne Cash, Johnny Cash, Roy Cash Jr., Tommy Cash, Damon Fielder, Marshall Grant, Scotty Moore, Knox Phillips, Sam Phillips, Mark Stielper.
Articles, Essays, and Reviews
Gilmore, Mikal. “The Man in Black.” In Cash by the Editors of Rolling Stone.
Recordings
Phillips, Dewey, Red, Hot and Blue. Memphis Archives Records. These radio broadcasts offer a colorful glimpse of the DJ who was stirring things up in Memphis in the mid-1950s. Cash named his first Sun Records single after the title of Phillips’s radio show.
“The Sun Collection,” various artists. Rhino. This 1994 CD box
set offers a comprehensive summary of the musical world Cash stepped into in 1954 and helped expand.
Chapter 4
Interviews
Johnny Cash, Roy Cash Jr., Colin Escott, Dale Franklin, Marshall Grant, David McGee, Knox Phillips, Sam Phillips.
Articles, Essays, and Reviews
Gilmore, Mikal. “The Man in Black.” In Cash by the Editors of Rolling Stone.
Chapter 5
Interviews
James Burton, Louise Burton, Johnny Cash, Kathy Cash, Roy Cash Jr., Larry Collins, Lorrie Collins, Billie Jean Horton, Barbara King, Claude King, David McGee, Sam Phillips, Mark Stielper.
Articles, Essays, and Reviews
Gilmore, Mikal. “The Man in Black.” In Cash by the Editors of Rolling Stone.
Gleason, Ralph J. “It Looks As If Elvis Has a Rival—From Arkansas.” San Francisco Chronicle, December 16, 1956.
Green, Ben A. “Johnny Cash Achieves ‘Life’s Ambition.’” Nashville Banner, July 14, 1956.
Recordings
Johnny Cash: From Memphis to Hollywood. Columbia Legacy, 2011. This two-disc package contains the first Cash broadcast on KWEM in Memphis as well as a sample of early demos that Cash did at Sun—including “I Walk the Line,” “Get Rhythm,” and “Country Boy.”
Chapter 6
Background
When was “I Walk the Line” written? Many articles about Cash point to the November 19, 1955, show in Gladewater, Texas, but that date goes against much that Cash said and virtually everything Grant said about the song. (We won’t even get into Vivian’s claim that he wrote the song while they were driving in the car one day; most likely he was simply singing the song to her for the first time.)
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