The man -the life story, the successes, the humiliations, the disasters, the fascinating juxtaposition of the sinister and the charming, the suggestion of unpredictability -is an attractive figure. In Johnny Cash, writes Henry Pleasants in The Great American Popular Singers, “the artist is the man rather than the art …. A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame since 1980, Cash is renowned for his combination of rural music traditions -especially gospel and ballads -with innovation and experimentation from a number of contemporary sources.Īdditionally, critics of modern music have noted that Cash ’s performances are greatly enhanced by his carefully-crafted stage persona, based on a pastiche of rough-hewn backwoodsmen from a bygone era. Cash ’s appeal has even extended beyond the bounds of country and western music to embrace pop, blues, and folk audiences who often reject the pure country sound.
For more than thirty years the craggy-faced Johnny Cash has been one of America ’s most popular country singers.
