Back before country music became dumbed-down, there was a very eclectic mix of musical styles which melded to form what was known as "bad [boy] outlaw country blues," of which Johnny Cash was the exemplar. "I Walk the Line" is an appropriate intro to the man who carefully crafted his "man in black" identity. That identity always brought together the two seemingly opposite sides of Cash's personality: The "Folsom Prison" outlaw (Cash let the legend build around himself he was an ex-con) and the gospel-singing, deeply-religious man. No matter, Cash's intelligent, complex tunes are a slap in the face at the kind of facile "I'm just a simple [country person], and proud of it, hyuck, hyuck, hyuck" [stuff] that the media puts out today...

Today's aspiring country stars would do well to listen to Cash, who deftly mixes Nashville country, gospel and blues. His "Two Timin' Woman" is a heartbreaker, time and again.

Even though I grew up in Johnny Cash's era, I never listened much to country music. I became interested in his music after the movie 'Walk the Line' came out. I listened to samples of many of Johnny Cash's CDs on Amazon before selecting this one. It's now one of my favorites. The selection of songs is good, as is the quality of the recording.