A Year of Shuffling: A Beretta, Me, and Johnny Cash

My roommate Jason and I are getting ready to take a ride either to get beer or maybe we're on our way to Wendy's to get some Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers before midnight. You see the trick is to get there right as they're closing because if you're nice they're willing to give you free stuff. It works every time but it's a race against time. We pile into his old but awesome Beretta and get on our way. Not going to lie but Jay's car isn't new but it isn't old either, there is no CD player but there is a tape deck (you do remember those don't you?). Jay has two tapes in his car. The first one is the Beastie Boys License To Ill and the second one is Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison (Side A)/Live At San Quentin (Side B). We have listened to the Beastie Boys a lot and Jay decides for this car ride we're going to change it up a bit.

To be honest I don't know much of Johnny Cash other then Ring of Fire. I'm a Junior in college and I'm incredibly uneducated in the ways of Johnny Cash.

"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash..."

As the music starts to play Jay and I start talking, and he tells me how he loves to go back roading with this tape on and how once in at a high school conference trip he went up to an open podium and started singing Ring of Fire as the room filled. Jay's tape deck doesn't rewind so the tape has to play through from side A to side B and sometimes we lose track of what show we're listening to, but it doesn't matter. After a couple of car rides I'm singing a long in my best Johnny Cash voice impersonation (over time it becomes pretty good and Folsom Prison Blues becomes one of my favorite karaoke songs).

This my friends is how I become educated in the music of Johnny Cash. It's weird that it took me so long to get into his music but I've been a fan ever since those excellent Beretta car rides. There's an old saying that goes "there are two types of people in the world. Those that love Johnny Cash and those that will" and I think it might be one of the truest statements ever made. At first when you hear the sound of his voice and the twang of the guitars you're left wondering what you got yourself into. After a couple of bars or maybe a couple of songs you're drawn in. Cash's unique voice and wonderful story telling sucks you into his world, and you can't help but feeling like an outlaw while it drips from your speakers.

I Walk the Line is a very simple song (I guess most of Cash's songs are) but it's the lyrics, the story that draws you in. Johnny Cash never sang anything he didn't mean. So in I Walk the Line you know that he believes that his love for this woman will keep him on the straight and narrow. The beauty of Johnny Cash is how he was able to say so much in such a short amount of time (most songs clock in under four minutes). I know we briefly discussed Harry Chapin the other day and how he is one of musics greatest story tellers, but I'm not sure if there's any one better at telling a story then Cash (for further proof listen to A Boy Named Sue or Give My Love To Rose).

I always envision myself on the run from the law listening to my Johnny Cash records as I duck into New Mexico with a new name. I'm not sure of what crime I committed (it varies from time to time) but the one things I'm always sure of is that Johnny Cash is playing and I'm not getting caught. This is my favorite way to listen to Johnny Cash, you should try it.