Classic Pop Icons

Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” is Song of the Week on Classic Pop Icons. “Folsom Prison Blues” was first released as a Sun Records single on December 15, 1955, backed with “So Doggone Lonesome.” It also appeared on his first album, “With His Hot and Blue Guitar,” issued by Sun in September 1957.

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The latest in the Johnny Cash “Bootleg” series will feature 50 live performances recorded between 1956 and 1979, of which 39 are previously unreleased. The 2-CD “Johnny Cash: Bootleg Vol 3 – Live Around the World” includes tracks from 10 performance locations, including the Big “D” Jamboree in Dallas (1956), the Newport Folk Festival (1964), the USO tour in Vietnam (1969) and a White House invitational (1970).

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Legendary bass player, Marshall Grant, passed away on Saturday night (Aug 6) at a hospital in Arkansas. The 83-year-old was best known for his long association with Johnny Cash, during which he helped create the “boom-chicka-boom” sound that appeared on classic recordings such as “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”

Grant was born in 1928 in Bessemer City, North Carolina, and moved to Memphis, Tennessee with his wife in 1947. He was introduced to Johnny Cash in 1954 by Johnny’s brother Roy, who he worked with at Automobile Sales Company, along with Luther Perkins. Johnny Cash, Grant and Perkins put a band together and began performing local gigs, along with steel guitarist Red Kernodle. As both Cash and Perkins were guitarists, Grant switched from guitar to upright bass.

The four had an unsuccessful audition for Sun Records in late 1954, but things went better when they tried again the following year, this time without Kernodle. Sun Records boss, Sam Phillips, signed the three as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two and they soon had a moderate hit with “Cry, Cry, Cry.”

Left to right: Luther Perkins, Johnny Cash and Marshall Grant

Like Elvis Presley before them, Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two toured extensively in the South and became regulars on the Louisiana Hayride radio show in December 1955, before progressing to the Grand Ole Opry in the summer of 1956 in the wake of their million-selling single “I Walk the Line.”

Johnny Cash – “I Walk the Line”

Grant would play bass for Johnny Cash in the studio and on stage until 1980 when he moved into management, representing the Statler Brothers until their retirement in 2002. The pair remained good friends and were back on stage together in April 1999 for the “All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash,” which featured performances from artists such as Sheryl Crow, Chris Isaak, Willie Nelson, June Carter-Cash, Kris Kristofferson and many more.

The Tennessee Two were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee in 2007. Here’s the video that accompanied the induction, with Marshall Grant’s recollections on how the band got started:

Grant’s autobiography, “I Was There When It Happened: My Life with Johnny Cash,” was published in 2006.

Johnny Cash’s daughter, Rosanne, has told how Grant was due to play at the Johnny Cash Festival in Jonesboro, Arkansas on Thursday, but fell ill. She was with him for his final two days and has paid tribute to her “back-up dad” on her Twitter page:

Johnny Cash – “Ring of Fire”