Back in 2014, one reporter for Guardian music asked the question: is Johnny Cash bigger now than he ever was when he was alive? Following the success of the Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon biopic, the way in which his later music connected to a new, younger audience, and, as Rick Rubin puts it, “the general recognition of the great loss of an American icon”, the answer seemed affirmative.
The posthumous celebrations continue this year in the form of two live albums – a 1978 concert album called Koncert v Praze (In Prague-Live) and Man in Black: Live in Denmark 1971. Below is a version of one of his most definitive tracks, I Walk the Line, taken from the latter. Cash was in the middle of a tour of Scandinavia when he was asked to star in his own concert special for Danish television, and this show, filmed before a live audience on a Danish TV sound stage, showcases performances from his back-up band Tennessee Three, June Carter Cash, the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers, and includes many of his greatest hits.
- Out via Columbia/Legacy Recordings’, this is Man in Black: Live in Denmark 1971’s first release, and is available on Friday 27 November on vinyl, with the CD and digital version out on 4 December.
