Johnny Cash - Sin and Redemption: Live Acoustic American Recordings (1994)

This is kind of a follow up to the Johnny Cash concert in Austin, Texas, in 1994 that I posted here a couple of days ago. 1994 was a special time for Cash's concert performances. He was supporting his 1994 solo acoustic album "American Recordings." So, as far as I know, it was the first and only time he played a significant number of songs in solo acoustic format in concert.

There was a whole solo acoustic section in the 1994 concert I recently posted. But it turns out he changed his set list from night to night, and he played many more songs in that format in other shows. So I've made this album to gather together all the other solo acoustic performances I could find from 1994 that either have great sound quality, or are different songs than the ones in the Austin, Texas show I posted, or both.

This album is possible mainly due to two sources. An hour-long 1994 concert recorded in Manhattan was played on TV, and has excellent sound quality. Another 1994 concert of similar length recorded in Montreux, Switzerland, was released as the DVD "Live in Montreux," but never released as an album. That has excellent sound quality too. The first 30 minutes of this album come from those two sources.

The last ten minutes come from two other sources that are mere audience bootlegs. The sound quality for these are noticeably worse, but still fairly good. The songs are more interesting though. Generally speaking, Cash only played songs from the "American Recordings" in solo acoustic format. But here he dipped back to play two songs he first did in the 1970s, "The Ballad of Barbara" and "Flesh and Blood," in that format. Plus there's "Like a Soldier," an "American Recordings" song I couldn't find live in that format from any better source.

One nice thing about all these songs is that Cash talks before the vast majority of them, and his between song banter is entertaining. It's also different than the banter before the same songs from the Austin, Texas show.

Speaking of that show, here are the songs on this album that aren't on that one: "Let the Train Blow the Whistle," "Redemption," "The Man Who Couldn't Cry," and "Thirteen," plus the three I mentioned above, "The Ballad of Barbara," "Flesh and Blood," and "Like a Soldier." There also are a few solo acoustic performances at the Austin, Texas, show that aren't here: "A Cowboy's Prayer," "Oh, Bury Me Not," "Down There by the Train," and "Death and Hell." I thought about including those exact same performances on this album, but I figured that was redundant, because anyone interested enough to get this would almost certainly have that concert too.

By the way, in Cash's between song banter, both here and in the Austin, Texas, show, he mentioned multiple times how "sin and redemption" was the theme to the "American Recordings" album. So that's why I named this "Sin and Redemption."

01 talk (Johnny Cash)
02 Delia's Gone (Johnny Cash)
03 Tennessee Stud (Johnny Cash)
04 Bird on a Wire (Johnny Cash)
05 talk (Johnny Cash)
06 Let the Train Blow the Whistle (Johnny Cash)
07 talk (Johnny Cash)
08 The Beast in Me (Johnny Cash)
09 talk (Johnny Cash)
10 Redemption (Johnny Cash)
11 talk (Johnny Cash)
12 Drive On (Johnny Cash)
13 The Man Who Couldn't Cry (Johnny Cash)
14 talk (Johnny Cash)
15 Thirteen (Johnny Cash)
16 talk (Johnny Cash)
17 Like a Soldier (Johnny Cash)
18 The Ballad of Barbara (Johnny Cash)
19 talk (Johnny Cash)
20 Flesh and Blood (Johnny Cash)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15602959/JohnnyC_1994_SinandRdemptionLiveAcoustic_atse.zip.html

The cover art shows Cash playing at the Glastonbury Festival in 1994. By the way, there's a bootleg of that concert with excellent soundboard sound quality too, but he played a short set, and none of the solo acoustic songs are different than the ones here.