Johnny Cash - Live at Montreux 1994

Starring:Johnny Cash
Studio: Eagle Vision USA
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
Johnny Cash, an American icon, is captured in this amazing performance from the 1994 Montreux Jazz Festival. Going through 19 of his classics, including a guest appearance from his wife June on "Jackson", Cash gives a history lesson of sorts. At the time of the show, he had been recording for nearly 40 years, and he performs most of his biggest hits.

In late 2005, the bio-pic "Walk The Line" hits theatres, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as his wife June Carter Cash. It is currently slated for a November release, and will presumably be one of the high-profile motion pictures of the holiday season.

Description

Johnny Cash, an American icon, is captured in this amazing performance from the 1994 Montreux Jazz Festival. Going through 19 of his classics, including a guest appearance from his wife June on "Jackson", Cash gives a history lesson of sorts. At the time of the show, he had been recording for nearly 40 years, and he performs most of his biggest hits.

Customer Reviews:

johnny cash is good.......2006-09-23

if you like johnny cash you wont regret picking this dvd up ghost riders in the sky and walk the line are 2 of johnny cash`s greatest hits he does them justice on this dvd

Sin And Redemption.......2006-06-02

I was fortunate enough to see Johnny Cash twice in concert, including once in 1994, the year this was made. While I like this DVD and have watched it several times, I give it four stars versus five due to fairly consistent sound level and mixing problems on the audio track. The set list is fairly standard for Johnny from that time period, and includes many of his most popular originals plus many from the then-new "American Recordings" (which I admit are not generally among my favorites.)

From my understanding Johnny had a sore throat the night this show was taped (though the only real evidence for that is the repetitive throat clearing between songs) and I don't think he was quite at the top of his game during this show. The band was great, and W.S. Holland, Johnny's drummer since 1958, was in particularly excellent form that night. Standouts included great renditions of "Folsom Prison Blues," "Ring of Fire," "I Walk The Line," and "Redemption" (where Johnny discusses sin and redemption, the theme of his then-latest album.) Of all the songs in the set, though, I think the standout performance is on "Orange Blossom Special" with a particularly great "dueling harmonicas" interlude. Interestingly, I was really looking forward to "Jackson" and "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" with June, which are normally simply divine to listen to live, but I thought these were two of the weaker spots in the set, with Johnny and June both in different keys during parts of each (especially noticeable on "Jackson") and John Carter Cash adding to the vocal disharmony on occasion as well.

The show closer "The Next Time I'm In Town" was a real treat and definitely ended the show on a high note. Unfortunately, the crowd, while respectful and appreciative was not overly warm or enthusiastic, which I guess is not that surprising given that the venue was a European jazz festival.

Any Johnny Cash show is pure pleasure and is to be treasured. While this one perhaps does not show Johnny at his very best, it is still very, very good and deserves repeated viewings (my copy has had quite a workout.) Were it not for the audio problems I would give this DVD five stars because even on an off night Johnny Cash easily earns it.

Interesting for Established Johnny Cash Fans. He Is Very Elderly, Yet Revived by MTV........2006-05-23

This is an interesting DVD of a live concert from 5 July 1994. Johnny Cash looks elderly, yet this is from the era when he got signed to the American recording label, and his career was enjoying yet another comeback and some very good musical output.

This JOHNNY CASH--LIVE AT MONTREUX 1994 on DVD is about 60 minutes long. The finished product is a little rough around the edges. This is not part of a Johnny Cash tour, but an appearance at an international music festival of some reknown in its own right, (this is the festival where Stevie Ray Vaughan was discovered by David Bowie in the early 1980s). The DVD cover has typos, like they spell Folsom wrong, "Fulsome Prison Blues"; and the PA/sound man does a lousy job of mic volume between songs, which are usually too quiet to hear what is being said without turning up your TV.

Johnny Cash looks tired and scraggily, but for the most part he and his band sound very good! His son John Carter Cash plays guitar in his band, and he has W.S. Holland on drums (since way back in the 1950's). The liner notes say Johnny had a sore throat, but you don't notice it in most songs, just an occasional cough or clearing his throat, rarely messing up any songs, (but that does happen at least once during a flubbed verse due to coughing).

"Get Rhythm" sounds great! It is a bit rearranged to be a little smoother and bouncy, compared to the original. "Ghost Riders in the Sky" has Johnny doing some "coyote" yipping and yelping, as if he were herding cows on a horse, maybe.

After about 25 minutes, he starts a 6 song, solo acoustic section of the concert, with just Johnny and his own acoustic guitar. His singing and playing is very strong in this 20 minute section of the show!

Then they bring out his wife, June Carter, to sing a couple of songs together. June looks a bit nervous, compared to Johnny, but I guess Johnny had already been onstage for 45 minutes, so he was already over the nervous energy of the first few songs. During "Jackson", Johnny snidely mimics the lyrics of "you big talking man", which makes June look a bit puzzled and uneasy. June speaks in a different language between songs, for the natives. Then they do "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" along with their son, John Carter Cash. This is another high point of the show, for me.

"Orange Blossom Special" features Johnny playing harmonica, as he has done in his shows for decades. He is very good here, too.

This DVD is great if you definitely like Johnny Cash, but newcomers would probably be better off checking out Johnny in his younger years, from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, perhaps? On the other hand, many younger folks might know him only from this era of his career, when he first started getting MTV play, due to being signed to Rick Rubin's record label, who had previously had big hits with a few big MTV bands, like the Beastie Boys.

I like this DVD, but it seems to be nicer to just LISTEN to the TV while I do other things, than to actually sit and WATCH the concert during repeat plays on my DVD player. It is interesting to watch it the first few times, but I get more mileage from just listening to it, like listening to the stereo, but not actually watching it.

I can also recommend THE GOSPEL ROAD on DVD. It is not a live concert, but Johnny made it 20 years earlier, on location in Israel, to tell the story of Jesus Christ.

I also have gotten more viewing time out of his recent biography DVD movie, WALK THE LINE, which got me very curious and interested in Johnny Cash, lately, and got me checking out his CDs and DVDs, in a more in-depth way, in the first place.

My favorite Johnny Cash item is his 16 CD, spoken word reading of the entire NEW TESTAMENT of THE HOLY BIBLE, available on amazon.com, and very reasonably priced! My favorite Gospel CD by Johnny is GOSPEL GLORY, so far.

My favorite live music CD by Johnny is JOHNNY CASH AT SAN QUENTIN, which is a little more relaxed, yet more intense and varied than JOHNNY CASH LIVE AT FOLSOM PRISON, though both are classic live albums, and classic Johnny Cash albums worth owning.

Well worth the price.......2006-05-11

I have just received this DVD from amazon.com. Took less than 2 weeks for international delivery, not bad at all. The first few songs are performed in a rather deadpan manner, without a hint of a smile from any of the backup musicians. From I Walk The Line onwards, the spirit picks up and finally climaxes in a rousing version of Jackson with June Carter and John Carter Cash joining his famous mum and dad in Will The Circle Be Unbroken.

As this was presumably the concert to promote his then latest album American Recordings, Cash sings a number of songs from it in his inimitably poignant and heartfelt manner, Bird on A Wire being exceptionally beautiful. There are some mic-ing problems, the spoken intro to some of the songs is hardly audible and the DVD release is only in 2-channel stereo. But generally, the audio-visual quality is good and well worth the price you pay.

Great DVD, Well Woth the money.......2006-04-30

Great selection of songs on this dvd. You won't be dissapointed with this great concert! Must have for every Johnny Cash Fan!

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