Johnny Cash - The Man In Black (1963-69) (Box Set) (Import) (CD)

German completists Bear Family have done the world a great service by painstakingly anthologising the early work of Johnny Cash in their MAN IN BLACK box sets. The first two volumes collect Cash's earliest work, including his stellar rockabilly-influenced Sun recordings. This third installment in the series is no less essential, though, as it represents some of Cash's most progressive work. Most of the material included here was recorded during a time when Cash's iconoclast/outlaw ethic fell in rather serendipitously with the contemporaneous underground/countercultural movement. Ever the champion of the underdog and the downtrodden, Cash recorded his two legendary "prison" albums in '68 and '69, AT FOLSOM PRISON and AT SAN QUENTIN, which are included here in all their gritty, near-riot-instigating glory. In the late-'60s, Cash also began championing the work of contemporary folk-rock singer songwriters like Tim Hardin, and Cash's version of Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" is a memorable one. The overall impression on this set is one of an artist who refused to stand still, determined to pursue his muse wherever it led him.