The Children's Album [Bonus Tracks]

1	Nasty Dan 2:07
2	One and One Makes Two 2:24
3	I Got a Boy and His Name Is John / June Carter Cash 2:55
4	Little Magic Glasses 2:22
5	Miss Tara 2:08
6	Dinosaur Song 1:28
7	Tiger Whitehead 3:13
8	There's a Bear in the Woods previously unreleased / Bonus Track 2:23
9	Call of the Wild 2:54
10	Little Green Fountain 1:50
11	Old Shep 2:25
12	(The) Timber Man 2:49
13	Grandfather's Clock previously unreleased / Bonus Track 3:40
14	Ah Bos Cee Dah previously unreleased / Bonus Track 2:35
15	Why Is a Fire Engine Red previously unreleased / Bonus Track 1:20

Barnes & Noble

With affectionate new liner notes by John Carter Cash and four previously unreleased tracks, Johnny Cash's 1975 Children's Album is returned to print in CD form, and it's about time. So much of Cash's dark side has been in the press since his death in 2003 that the loving and lighthearted fare here (some of which has shown up in anthologies over the years) is a much-needed reminder of the private man's true nature: As the son writes in the liner notes, the father was "a fun loving, easy going, laughing man who was, in scores of ways, as big a kid as I have ever been." Working with musicians that included some studio stalwarts supplementing his impeccable band -- featuring Carl Perkins and Bob Wootton on guitars, Marshall Grant on bass and W. S. "Fluke" Holland on drums -- Cash didn't have to go far to find material: He wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 15 songs, and those tunes are just plain fun. There's some nice comedic banter between Cash and June Carter Cash on the whimsical "I Got a Boy And His Name Is John"; "Little Magic Glasses," with a lovely string arrangement humming behind Cash's tender vocal, is a touching evocation of childhood wonder with a Brothers Grimm twist; a playful talking blues, "Dinosaur Song," offers a concise lesson in reptilian history and ponders what it might have been like to be a kid with a tyrannosaurus rex for a pet. Over soft, fingerpicked acoustic guitar accompaniment, Cash recounts a true-life tale on "There's a Bear in the Woods" (in which one of Roy Orbison's sons figures prominently), while beloved standards "Old Shep" and "Grandfather's Clock" add a proper sentimental tinge to the proceedings. Gotta love this man. David McGee

All Music Guide

Anybody that's only familiar with Johnny Cash the outlaw or the brooding mythic figure of his latter-day albums will find the very idea of a Johnny Cash children's album improbable, or at the very least amusing. Truth is, Cash always showed a fondness for novelty tunes and silly songs, dating all the way back to his Sun sides (and this is not even counting the unintentional silliness of his corny Americana records), so it was not a stretch for Cash to do a children's album -- particularly in 1975, when he was coming off a stretch of hosting a TV variety show and about to enter a mid-career decline. It was an opportune time to kick out a good children's album, which Children's Album is, a sweet, good-natured collection of novelties, ditties, and the occasional standard. Musically, this isn't miles away from Cash's usual territory, but it's much lighter and mellower than even his poppiest work of the '60s and '70s, which only makes sense: he is singing for kids, after all. But what makes this Children's Album click is that Cash is never singing down to his audience, he's singing straight to them, just like he sings to any other audience. This lack of condescension makes up for the occasionally spotty material, as it gives the album heart and makes it an album that feels like a Johnny Cash album in addition to a kids album. In that sense, it's a good "my first Johnny Cash LP" -- it provides a good introduction to the Man in Black for little ones. Stephen Thomas Erlewine