Bootleg, Volume One: Personal File

VINYL FORMAT. Import! Today Johnny Cash's stature as an icon of American music is commanding and significant. When it comes to singers of any genre - country, Western or rockabilly; blues, folk or gospel - few have achieved the height of The Man in Black. Despite his death in 2003, Cash continues to grow in influence, casting a shadow that reaches far beyond the country circle from whence he grew. To know the tree, one must begin at the root and take in all the branches; to fully grasp Cash's old-growth legend, one must hear his earliest performances, as well as unreleased or under-promoted recordings that somehow remained out of earshot of an adoring (and still-expanding) public. Such is the mission of the Johnny Cash Bootlegs, a series brimming with historical importance but also delivering thoroughly enjoyable listening experiences, each programmed to stand as a captivating doorway into Cash's popular legacy as effectively as any greatest hits compilation.

Deep within the House of Cash, Johnny Cash's recording studio, office suite, and museum in Hendersonville, Tennessee, behind the studio's control room, was a small vault-like space in which many of his most prized possessions were stored. A collection of rare firearms dating back to the Eighteenth Century, some personal effects of Jimmie Rodgers, artwork and letters from fans all over the world and much more was carefully arranged and locked away for safekeeping. Then there were the tapes. Hundreds of them. Demos from songwriters, album masters, multi-tracks of the ABC television series, and some boxes marked simply "Personal File." These are Johnny's most intimate sessions, recorded mostly in 1973 and then subsequently at his leisure. Just a lone voice and an acoustic guitar, singing songs and telling stories about them. A concept that has since come to be thought of as revelatory but, as is evident in this stunning new set, is something Johnny Cash had been doing all along if only for his personal file. Bootleg, Volume One: Personal File features forty-nine previously unreleased recordings.