Johnny Cash – Johnny Cash Is Coming To Town

Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town is the 73rd album by Johnny Cash, released in 1987, and his first for Mercury Records. The track "Sixteen Tons" was previously a hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford, "The Big Light" is an Elvis Costello song from his album King of America, released the previous year and "Let Him Roll" is from Guy Clark's debut, Old No. 1. The album reached No. 36 on the country charts, while the only single, "The Night Hank Williams Came to Town," peaked at No. 43.

Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town reteamed Cash with producer "Cowboy" Jack Clement, who as Sun Records' house engineer had overseen many of Cash's '50s sessions and written some of his early hits. The album's studio team includes wife June Carter Cash and her singing siblings Anita and Helen and daughter Carlene Carter, Cash's then son-in-law Marty Stuart, and Waylon Jennings, who lends his voice to the warmly nostalgic "The Night Hank Williams Came to Town." Other highlights include rousing readings of Elvis Costello's "The Big Light" and James Talley's "W. Lee O'Daniel (and the Light Crust Dough Boys)."

180-gram vinyl

Reviews

"Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town is one of Cash's criminally overlooked recordings from the 1980s."

Allmusic