Blue Vinyl LP, Sun Records 70th Anniversary Remaster

This pressing puts Johnny Cash’s debut album on blue vinyl, in a single-pocket jacket with a printed inner sleeve. The audio is the remaster Sun Records prepared for the label’s 70th anniversary in 2022, and the package carries liner notes by rock critic and Cash biographer Robert Hilburn.

Sun Records released With His Hot and Blue Guitar in October 1957, and the label’s own notes describe it as the first LP Sam Phillips issued on Sun. Phillips produced the recordings, made between 1954 and 1957, with Cash on vocals and acoustic rhythm guitar and the Tennessee Two behind him: Luther Perkins on lead guitar and Marshall Grant on bass.

Four of the twelve songs were Sun singles before the album appeared. “Cry, Cry, Cry” reached No. 14 on the country chart, and “I Walk the Line” held the top of the country chart for six weeks and reached No. 17 on the pop chart. “Folsom Prison Blues” and “So Doggone Lonesome” complete the four. The album opens with “Rock Island Line” and closes with “Doin’ My Time.” The video above is Sun’s official upload of “I Walk the Line.”

Tracklist

Side A

Rock Island Line
I Heard That Lonesome Whistle
Country Boy
If the Good Lord’s Willing
Cry, Cry, Cry
Remember Me
Side B

So Doggone Lonesome
I Was There When It Happened
I Walk the Line
The Wreck of the Old ’97
Folsom Prison Blues
Doin’ My Time