About this Artist

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Editorial Reviews

The mid-to-late '70s is generally not regarded as Johnny Cash's golden era, but the albums he made during those years have held up surprisingly well. While Cash himself has said he wasn't paying enough attention to his music back then, he was at least paying attention to other artists' music, championing talented young songwriters such as Rodney Crowell and Bruce Springsteen and penning some strong original tunes as well. Produced by Brian Ahern, noted for his behind-the-board work for Emmylou Harris, Silver sounded slicker than the usual Cash long-player -- lots of horns and enough other instruments to make Phil Spector envious -- but Ahern knew how to cast the Man in Black's voice so that his formidable baritone was always the star of the show. Tom T. Hall's nostalgic romp, "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore," Crowell's atmospheric, well-observed tale of rodeo life, "Bull Rider," Billy Joe Shaver's easygoing "Lately I've Been Leanin' Toward the Blues," and a majestic treatment of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" are all captivating performances. The original album contained one honky-tonk duet with George Jones on Cash's original love song "I'll Say It's True," but this reissue adds two more Cash-Jones gems: an updated treatment of the exquisite "I Still Miss Someone" and a sprightly reworking of Cash's prison song "I Got Stripes." An interesting choice for reissue, Silver shows that even when Cash felt he was only going through the motions, the results were almost always entertaining, and often beautiful and moving. David McGee, Barnes & Noble

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