Essential Decision: Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard?

31 Dec 09

Roots music authority No Depression may not be in print anymore, but that hasn’t stopped them from asking tough questions and pulling in a lot of reader opinions on their Web site. Like this one, where writer Grant Alden asks, “Whose output is more essential — more worth absorbing, listening to, and giving shelf space to — the assembled works of Johnny Cash, or those of Merle Haggard?” Yikes. Talk about stirring the pot. He goes on to talk about his experience with both artists, even talking about a Haggard show he’d seen at the Ryman (“I’d expected a brilliant show, a rebellious middle finger full of life, but he just ran through the numbers as if he were in Branson”) and theorizing that you may not need the complete works of Cash to complete you (“Cash can be summarized in a well-chosen two-or three-disc compilation with no dimunition of his gifts, nor of his importance”). I will reserve my opinions on this and let the readers weigh in below in the comments box.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Posted By: Fan Country / Shows / Popularity: 1% [?]

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