Johnny+Cash

Known today as a quarter of the "big Sun four," Johnny Cash made an indelible impact upon the country music world. Growing up in a family of seven children while working in the cotton fields during The Great Depression, Cash's music was greatly influenced by the struggles of his youth. In 1944, his brother and best friend, Jack, was pulled into a whirling table saw in the mill where he worked; Jack was cut almost in two and suffered over a week before dying. Cash often recalled the guilt he felt for that incident; he and his mother both had a sense of foreboding that day, yet they allowed Jack to go to work.

Musically, Cash was strongly influenced by gospel and Irish music. Taught by his mother and friend, Cash began to play guitar as a child. His enlistment in the US Air Force, though, inhibited some of his early musical development. While in the Air Force, he met and fell in love with Vivian Liberto. In 1954, the couple moved to Memphis, Tennessee where cash sold radios and played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant at night. Once Cash worked up the courage to visit Sun Records, Sam Phillips criticized his gospel sound as unmarketable. By 1955, his Sun recordings "Hey Porter" and "Cry Cry Cry" were realized with moderate success.

The Sun Records studio in Memphis

Cash's outlaw image and edgy, throaty sound attracted fast success. His song "Ring of Fire" was a crossover hit, reaching number 1 on the country charts and entering Top 20 on pop charts.Originally, the song was written by Merle Kilgore and June Carter, whom he later married; but the horn sound was arranged by Cash. June was inspired by the song, claiming it's about the hell Carter went through as she wrestled with her forbidden love for Cash and Cash's drug dependency and alcoholism. At the time, both were married to others.

Cash and Carter

media type="youtube" key="gRlj5vjp3Ko&hl=en" height="355" width="425" Cash performing "Ring of Fire"