PATSY YOUR ENTHUSIASM (10)
By:
August 4, 2026
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… Country Music of the Fifties (1954–1963)! Series edited by Josh Glenn. Qobuz playlist here.
JOHNNY CASH | THE REBEL — JOHNNY YUMA | 1959/1961
One of the means that my father — an evangelical minister — deployed in an effort to recruit me and my brother into the community of the faithful was via popular music. So in addition to the likes of Daniel Amos and Randy Stonehill, we listened repeatedly to Godspell, to Bob Dylan’s Gospel trilogy, and to Johnny Cash. I have vague, possibly hallucinated memories of attending Dylan’s Gospel Tour at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre in 1980, and Johnny Cash’s concert at Symphony Hall the following year.
Yes, though tormented and at times amphetamine-addicted, the Man in Black was an evangelical. Although he may have become an obscure figure in the wider culture — Columbia Records would drop him in ’86 — Johnny Cash remained important to evangelicals. Our church even arranged a screening of The Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus, a 1973 biopic produced, written, and narrated by Cash — and featuring original gospel tunes by Cash and Kris Kristofferson.
Years later, my son Sam would become obsessed with Cash’s story-songs of the ’50s and ’60s. Wen Susan and I first played him “A Boy Named Sue,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town,” and “Big River,” Sam was three years old.
Perhaps the least Cash-like of Cash’s ballads is “The Rebel — Johnny Yuma.” I was today years old when I discovered that it was written, by Andrew J. Fenady and Richard Markowitz, for an ABC-TV Western about a Civil War vet who roams the West in search of hopeless causes to champion. Rather than drawing on his gritty, personal story-telling skills, that is, “The Rebel” was a commercial commission that leveraged Cash’s stoic, weathered vocals. And instead of Luther Perkins’ minimalist, locomotive-evoking “boom-chicka-boom” rhythm, “The Rebel” gives us an upbeat commercial arrangement and a cowboy-ish galloping tempo. There’s a cinematic quality to the song that one might find too… Hollywood-ish. But Sam, who couldn’t get enough of The Alamo and Errol Flynn’s westerns, adored it for that very reason. I love Sam; he loved “The Rebel — Johnny Yuma.” By the transitive property, I love it too.
One morning in September 2003, just as I was pulling into the drop-off zone at Sam’s preschool, the news came over the radio that Johnny Cash had died. Sam, now four-and-a-half, dissolved into tears. Ignoring the honking of the other parents, I got into the backseat with him. Through his tears, Sam asked me to “pray to Johnny Cash.” It was a request I couldn’t refuse. I folded my hands, bowed my head, and said, as my own tears started to flow: “Dear Johnny, we’re sorry that you were in pain and we’re glad that you aren’t in pain any more. Thank you for the gift of your music and your stories. We’ll never forget you.”
Amen.
PATSY YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn. Nadine Hubbs on Marty Robbins’ EL PASO | Elizabeth Nelson on Dave Dudley’s SIX DAYS ON THE ROAD | Lynn Peril on Jean Chapel’s WELCOME TO THE CLUB | David Cantwell on Porter Wagoner’s MY BONFIRE | Will Hermes on Johnny Cash’s RING OF FIRE | Mimi Lipson on Loretta Lynn’s I’M A HONKY TONK GIRL | Charles Hughes on Roger Miller’s YOU DON’T WANT MY LOVE | Eric Weisbard on Lefty Frizzell’s THE LONG BLACK VEIL | Steacy Easton on Jean Shepard’s A SATISFIED MIND | Josh Glenn on Johnny Cash’s THE REBEL — JOHNNY YUMA | Carlo Rotella on Buck Owens’ CLOSE UP THE HONKY TONKS | Annie Nocenti on Patsy Cline’s THREE CIGARETTES IN AN ASHTRAY | Douglas Wolk on Lucky Starr’s I’VE BEEN EVERYWHERE | Will Groff on Ray Price’s NIGHT LIFE | Jonny Auping on Willie Nelson’s CRAZY | Brian Berger on Ernest Tubb’s THE YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS | Jason Grote on Bill Browning and His Echo Valley Boys’ DARK HOLLOW | Peter Doyle on Willie Nelson’s FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY | Sam Glenn on Johnny Cash’s BIG RIVER | Annie Zaleski on Patsy Cline’s WALKIN’ AFTER MIDNIGHT | Adam McGovern on Elvis Presley’s BLACK STAR / FLAMING STAR | Chris Spurgeon on Ricky Nelson’s BELIEVE WHAT YOU SAY | Stephen Thomas Erlewine on George Jones’ WHITE LIGHTNING | Devin McKinney on George Hamilton IV’s ABILENE | Mark Richardson on Elvis Presley’s BLUE MOON.
ALSO SEE: DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM (25 of our favorite Country records from 1964–1973) | & more Country at HILOBROW, including short appreciations of Gene Pitney, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Buck Owens, George Jones, June Carter Cash, Charley Pride, and many others.
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