JOHNNY CASH: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

Published by Hourly History
in 2022

The Hourly History series features e-book histories and biographies that can be read in about an hour. They are great if you want to know a little more about a topic, but you don't want to read a regular-sized book or biography. Plus, they offer a set of free books every weekend so you can explore without spending a dime.

I already knew the bare outlines of Johnny Cash's life, but this small biography filled it out a little more. It would have been great if there had been embedded links to the songs that are discussed throughout, but since this is an e-book it's not particularly hard to minimized the Kindle app and open up YouTube and find the song. I did this exact thing with the original version of Cash's classic hit Ring of Fire. Here is the original version, performed by one of June Carter's relatives. I had no idea that Cash didn't write this song himself.

Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

I was struck by the fact that Cash continued to struggle with drugs throughout his life. He was in and out of drug rehab centers from the 1960's into the 1980's. For me, this makes his take on the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt all the more poignant.

I enjoyed this e-book. I rate it 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: JOHNNY CASH: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History.

Riding for the Brand (audiobook) by Louis L'Amour

Good, but predictable

Audio version originally published in 1986 by Random House Audio
Multicast performance with sound effects
Duration: 55 minutes.

I like Louis L'Amour. His descriptions and conversations are top notch. However, his plots are predictable so I really am grading this on a curve.

Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson,
Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings

I am also rating the audio version of Riding for the Brand which is interesting because it is told by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash. It was quite enjoyable to hear the four of these men work together - they were all quite good, especially Kristofferson and Nelson.

This audio edition has features that most don't, including special effects and a music soundtrack that was sometimes reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Westerns and sometimes reminiscent of Silverado. The inclusion of the special effects did speed the plot along (you don't have to describe that people are knocking on the door or riding horses, etc.) but sometimes they are distracting (one scene in particular had an overly loud clock ticking over the top of everyone's voices).

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Riding for the Brand.

Reviewed on January 26, 2005.