Personal File

Disc 1
1	The Letter Edged in Black previously unreleased 2:39
2	There's a Mother Always Waiting at Home previously unreleased 4:21
3	The Engineer's Dying Child previously unreleased 2:07
4	My Mother Was a Lady previously unreleased 3:36
5	The Winding Stream previously unreleased 2:37
6	Far Away Places previously unreleased 2:23
7	Galway Bay previously unreleased 1:45
8	When I Stop Dreaming previously unreleased 3:11
9	Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes previously unreleased 3:32
10	I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen previously unreleased 2:28
11	Missouri Waltz previously unreleased 2:00
12	Louisiana Man previously unreleased 3:28
13	Paradise previously unreleased 3:03
14	I Don't Believe You Wanted to Leave previously unreleased 2:56
15	Jim, I Wore a Tie Today previously unreleased 2:47
16	Saginaw, Michigan previously unreleased 2:29
17	When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below) previously unreleased 2:16
18	Girl in Saskatoon previously unreleased 2:17
19	The Cremation of Sam McGee previously unreleased 5:33
20	Tiger Whitehead previously unreleased 4:44
21	It's All Over previously unreleased 2:49
22	A Fast Song previously unreleased 2:32
23	Virgie previously unreleased 2:57
24	I Wanted So previously unreleased 2:41
25	It Takes One to Know Me previously unreleased 3:14
Disc 2
1	Seal It in My Heart and Mind previously unreleased 1:51
2	Wildwood in the Pines previously unreleased 2:41
3	Who at My Door Is Standing previously unreleased 2:31
4	Have Thine Own Way Lord previously unreleased 3:43
5	Lights of Magdala previously unreleased 2:26
6	If Jesus Ever Loved a Woman previously unreleased 2:39
7	The Lily of the Valley previously unreleased 1:45
8	Have a Drink of Water previously unreleased 3:36
9	The Way Worn Traveler previously unreleased 2:03
10	Look Unto the East previously unreleased 2:12
11	Matthew 24 (Is Knocking at the Door) previously unreleased 1:57
12	The House Is Falling Down previously unreleased 2:51
13	One of These Days I'm Gonna Sit Down and Talk to Paul previously unreleased 3:20
14	What on Earth (Will You Do for Heaven's Sake) previously unreleased 2:44
15	My Children Walk in Truth previously unreleased 2:50
16	No Earthly Good previously unreleased 1:51
17	Sanctified previously unreleased 2:33
18	Lord, Lord, Lord previously unreleased 2:20
19	What Is Man previously unreleased 2:24
20	Over the Next Hill (We'll Be Home) previously unreleased 2:55
21	A Half a Mile a Day previously unreleased 4:25
22	Farther Along previously unreleased 2:57
23	Life's Railway to Heaven previously unreleased 2:14
24	In the Sweet Bye and Bye previously unreleased 2:50

Barnes & Noble

Over a decade ago, a parcel of recordings labeled "Personal File" was uncovered in Johnny Cash's home studio in Hendersonville, Tennessee, only to be recovered and lovingly restored by producer Gregg Geller -- who most recently compiled and produced last year's essential, Grammy-winning box set, The Legend. Of the 49 tracks spread over two discs, 24 were recorded in a span of five days in 1973; the remaining 25 date from 1974, 1976, 1977 (a sweet rendering of Carlene Carter's "It Takes One to Know One"), and 1980 (including a sprightly take on Rodney Crowell's spiritually resonant "Wildwood in the Pines"). Musically, the set has much in common with Bob Dylan's 1970 double-vinyl Self Portrait in that Cash, like Dylan, explores the full spectrum of music that molded him, including religious songs, traditional folk tunes, old pop standards, even poetry ("The Cremation of Sam McGee," by Robert Service), sprinkling these items among other, more contemporary offerings from the artist's life and times. The bill of fare features classics on the order of the Louvin Brothers' classic "When I Stop Dreaming," Lefty Frizzell's "Saginaw, Michigan," Doug Kershaw's "Louisiana Man," and John Prine's brilliant, understated screed decrying the devastation left by strip mining, "Paradise." There's no shortage of Cash originals here too, and many of them are of a religious nature, such as "Matthew 24 (Is Knocking at the Door)," with its chilling foreshadowing of endtimes that describes a world we might recognize as today's. Few artists have ever made so much of a guitar, an authoritative presence and voice, and meaningful lyrics as did Cash. This is yet more testimony from an artist absolutely sure of himself and his message, both entities remaining as vital and vivid as ever. David McGee

All Music Guide

Usually, when an artist of stature passes, the record company (or companies, and sometimes even family, look at the sad posthumous legacy of Townes Van Zandt for example) raid the vaults and unearth loads of embarrassing garbage along with a few gems. Personal File, issued by Sony Legacy, is very different. For starters, other than Hank Williams, there are no artists who have Cash's stature (arguably not even Jimmie Rodgers). Secondly, this material was not stored in Columbia's vaults but Cash's own. He began recording these songs -- most of disc one, and four songs from disc two -- at home in 1973, for no one but himself. The rest come from the his personal file up through 1982. While closing down the studio, museum, and store, John Carter Cash -- a fierce and honorable guardian of his parents' legacies -- invited the folks from Legacy in to sort through the many reels of demos, TV appearances, the awarding of honorary degrees, and speeches, and unreleased recordings. They found some tidy white boxes marked "Personal File," and it's from these tapes alone the tunes were drawn. Many of these are old folk songs passed on through the ages, some Cash sang as a kid, or heard from his companions: "Some of those old songs that I used to sing when I was a kid I still remember every word to 'em. A lot of 'em from the radio and I learned a lot of 'em from the boys across the road, the Williams boys, there was Guy and Otis Williams and Jack Williams. They didn't play the guitar or anything but they sang a little bit and they had a Victrola..." and Cash recalls the names, records, and performers, and then says "Bradley Kincaid might have sung this song, I can't quite remember....." and then goes on to finish his intro and sing the song "There's a Mother Waiting at Home." He tells stories to introduce the tunes here. This is as close to a private concert as one could ever get. The portrait is so intimate the listener is tempted not to breathe. For example, when Cash introduces "Far Away Places," he tells a story of one of the first talent contests he entered (he got only two votes) and thinks back that it might have been his selection of material that did him in, but it was the first song he ever sang in public. You can hear the memories, painful and hopeful, float back into the singer's delivery. His reading here of "Saginaw, Michigan" contains no peremptory tale, but the song says it all, and Cash brings the intimacy of the tune's tragic narrative to life in the present. Likewise, it's followed by other Northern-themed tunes, "When It's Springtime in Alaska" and "Girl from Saskatoon," (written by Cash and Johnny Horton) before launching into a devastating read of Robert Service's poem, "Cremation of Sam McGee." "It's All Over" is an original that comes from Cash's early days and was never recorded properly in the studio. There are songs by the Louvin Brothers, John Prine ("Paradise"), Doug Kershaw ("Louisiana Man"), and many others. Disc two is a collection of devotional songs, from well-known hymns like "Lily of the Valley," "Farther Along," and "The Way Worn Traveler," to provocative tunes of unknown origin either in authorship or session detail, such as "If Jesus Ever Loved a Woman, (It was Mary Magdalene)" (and this was how many years before the Da Vinci Code?) This tune and its delivery -- as well as its recording quality -- are open to speculation as to whether it is actually an original, improvised on the spot, and uncredited because of its controversial nature. There are gorgeous original songs such as "No Earthly Good," "What Is Man?" and the track Greil Marcus' bases his liner notes on, "A Half a Mile a Day." Marcus does his usual "big-American-dream-hoped-for-via-small-gesture -- of performance" riff here, but it is poetic and moving nonetheless. In sum, this is an utterly welcome and perhaps necessary addition to the Cash catalog. This is history; it's lineage history in a sense, Cash not forgetting the songs of his childhood or those he wrote for no other reason than to write them, or playing numbers by songwriters who were important to him. Personal File is an aural autobiography from one of the nation's greatest autobiographers; it's a portrait of the artist as a man, and a humble one at that. This is not even debatable as a purchase by Cash fans, and goes a long way to explaining something so mercurial it still slips by even as these songs are grasped and internalized. The sound quality is warm, wonderful, and immediate; it's almost like having Cash in your home. Thom Jurek

New York Times

This collection...has an amiable dragginess.... Most of these songs, even his religious originals, are plain and prim.... Cash fans will be able to apply an after-the-fact gravity to the music: this album was from a time when he had escaped his past. Ben Ratliff

Rolling Stone

The package is a gift -- a remarkably intimate portrait of the artist as a middle-aged man, alone in his home, telling tales and strumming lives with his fingers. Will Hermes

Entertainment Weekly

A profoundly personalized posthumous gift. (A-) Chris Willman