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The True West, Album Comments by
Johnny Cash
Four years ago, Columbia records album
producer Don Law said to me, "John" think about making an album of the western
songs. I thought about it, and Don new I would attempt it when I was ready, later, as a
guest in my house, he brought me two books on western lore. But nothing was mentioned
about a western album, instead, we talked about fishing.
Reading the books Don Law left me, I became fascinated by
the true tales of the west. I bought every issue of "True West" a successful
magazine published in Taxes and sold coast to coast. ( Later ), I learned that the
magazine is read and swapped around by serviceman overseas, and that some early issues are
worth up to ten dollars apiece.
Then while I was making a personal appearance in Austin
Texas, Joe Austell Small, Publisher of Western Publications said to me "John Cash
youd be good feller to ride the river with." He invited me to his offices where
he publishes "True West" "Frontier Times" and "Old West." I
saw his Remington and Russell paintings, and later over a Mexican-Style buffet, we got
excited about the record album I was planning called " The True West" Joe Small
rode the river with me, and we became good friends. I hope we still are after he hears it,
He sweated blood along with me to help me make it.
A few months ago, Don Law called me. "Johnny, old
boy arent we ready to do that western album"? I was afraid hed ask that.
I said. "yes" then I locked myself in my room full of books and took out pen and
paper to begin sketching my plans for songs and stories that would go into "The True
West"
The books by John Lomax, Carl Sandburg,
Botkin,
Dobie and all the rest were confusing. I closed the books and decided to call Tex
Ritter to ask if he would come help me and let me hear his side of it. Mr. Ritter drove to
my home and sat with me three hours with a tape recorder running and we went over
possibilities of the album. We became so involved in going over some three hundred songs
that we developed an intense, "True West" attitude toward it all. So far as
songs are concerned, there was only room for about twenty, at the most, on two records
and that would only just about touch the forty or fifty years that I was to sing
about. But here, at least, is a part of it. Thanks to Joe Small and to Tex Ritter, a man
whom I respect and am so much indebted to for the time he gave me, to Peter
LaFarge, my
Indian friend who had almost had every bone broken in his rodeo days: to Jack Elliott, who
came to Nashville and advised me when I "didnt know gee from haw" To Gene
Ferguson, of Columbia Records, who quietly sat still and pulled for me and the Tennessee
Three: to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra; to the Carter Family; to the Statler Brothers;
to Bob Johnson, who plays 2,001 year old folk songs because he simply likes them; to Tom
Morgan of Hollywood who sat up all night writing violin arrangements for some of these
songs. But thanks mainly to album producers Don Law and Frank Jones who worked seven
nights, all night long, to help capture the sound of the west wind. There are also many
others I havent space to thank here. Here is a trick of "that" time, just
a glimpse beyond the movies and television, back to when a few tales could show us
"The True West".
We arent sorry for the modern sounds and modern
arrangements on the classics like { I Ride An Old Paint ) or ( Streets Of Laredo ) after
all, they were meant to be heard on twentieth century record players and transistor
radios! For today that same west wind blowing, although buckboards and saddles are lying
out there turning to dust or crumbling from dry rot. How did I get ready for this album? I
followed trails in my jeep and on foot, and I slept under mesquite bushes and in gullies.
I heard the timber wolves, looked for golden nuggets in old creek beds, sat for hours
beneath a manzanita bush in an ancient Indian burial ground, breathed the west wind and
tales it tells only to those who listen. I replaced a wooden grave marker of some man in
Arizona who "never made it" I walked across alkali flats where others had walked
before me, but hadnt made it. I ate mesquite beans and squeezed the water from a
barrel cactus. I was saved once by a forest ranger, lying flat on my face, starving. I
learned to throw a bowie knife and kill a jack rabbit at forty yards, not for sport but
because I was hungry. I learned of the true west the hard way- a la 1965.

Yes it was an obsession, but I learned the ways of the
west its still there, and even though the people I sing about are gone, I saw
something of what their life was like. Most of it I enjoyed. Some of it was mean as hell.
But its the same west its wild and hot and unbelievable till you try it on
foot. It was The True West. Here are a few words about some of the narrations and
songs, including some definitions of cowboy lingo.
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