There's Something About a Man with a Lived in Face
I've been listening to a special on Johnny Cash, whose music I love. I shall never see him play and sing live again. It is very sad -- as though a part of myself had gone. He touched something in me that I shall miss -- perhaps a connection to the people he sings of -- perhaps a connection to something ephemeral within myself--something I have lost. (Man in black, The Gazette, Sept. 13, 03)
Contrary to popular belief, Cash spent only one day in jail. But he did record two albums at prisons. His music resonated with inmates, with the afflicted, the struggling, the heartsick and the unlucky, but with a broader public, too.
The songs he sang, many of which he wrote himself, made him one of the trail-blazers who moved country and western music into the mainstream, and he had more genuine country sensibility than a whole limo-load of designer-attired agent-created hat acts.
[. . . .]
His music, his unmistakable voice and his craggy, dignified, sorrowful face made him as instantly identifiable as any musician of recent times. His death yesterday, at age 71, will sadden all his fans, a very large group, indeed.
