Johnny Cash

It's been a little over a year since Johnny Cash passed, and if anything the hole he left in the world of music is deeper. Here is a little something I put down the week he passed;

Johnny Cash was more than a musician to me, he has been part of my consciousness. An iconic figure, who in many ways has been a model of manhood to me. Cash was a man of the earth, and he made earthy music. Most of his best songs were stark uncluttered themes about life, love and death. All subjects that touch a man's soul were touched by his pen and given breath through his voice. My greatest hopes, and aspirations, yet my basest desires and unpardonable sins were all represented by the man's music. Johnny Cash was a paradox. He could tell stories as hard as a dragon's breath (Delia's Gone), yet as kind and gentle as a lover (If I Were A Carpenter). Songs of freedom (City Of New Orleans), and of prison life (San Quentin). Cash was self sufficient, defiant, combative, loving, mean, tender, stoned, Christian, hell raising, gentlemanly, hard working and caring. He was loved equally by saints, sinners, drunks, tea-toddlers, hippies, punks, rednecks, city slickers and my father. Godspeed Johnny, the world will be a lesser place without you, but a better place because of you.

-Shamrock