Johnny Cash - the Mekons. What's the connection?
Well, its Jonboy Langford's love of country music and more specifically The Man in Black, AKA Johnny Cash. John Langford has recorded a love letter to Johnny Cash with his erstwhile band, The Pine Valley Cosmonauts. It's all Johnny Cash all the time on this great disc that features Cash with a British accent.
My first thought when a friend told me about it was. "How can anyone sing Cash songs without Cash's voice?" I mean, they're inseparable.

Even when other country singers do Cash I always think, "Yeah but you just make me want to hear Johnny." His songs are so great though, people just want to sing them, secretly desiring they could be as cool as Cash. It is to laugh. But the songs are so good they hold up even without Cash singing.
As I listened to this disc, I really wanted to know if Mr. Langford was intimidated by the specter of Johnny Cash's hugeness standing over him. So I called him and asked. I asked John how he heard of Cash and he told me that Cash was the only country star that crossed over to England at the time. One of the first songs he learned was a Cash tune. When asked if he was intimidated singing Cash he said "Not really, 'cause the songs are so good they sing themselves. Besides, I did an album in '88 where the Mekons backed up other artists doing Cash. So this isn't the first time for me." I asked about his choice of a reggae feel on I Still Miss Someone. He told me it seemed natural because country and reggae lend themselves to each other. The bass player, Tom Ray of The Bottle Rockets, had never played reggae bass so they just sort of sang a part for him and he nailed it. Naiveté wins again. The album was recorded in a day and finished over a three-day period. Mr Langford said he likes to record that way because it keeps things spontaneous.
The disc opens with Cocaine Blues (#1 - 00:59) . It's a song about a coke head who shoots his woman. I shot her down because she made me slow. I thought I was a daddy but she had five more. The singer is unapologetic about shooting his woman but regrets doing coke and whiskey because that's how he got caught.
Johnboy does these songs his own way, with feedback on the guitars but fairly straight country arrangements. A perfect example of this is Next in Line (#13 - 00:05) and Busted(#6 - 00:10). He stays away from the Cash guitar style yet hints at it enough to remind you who he's paying homage to. The only exception is a reggae feel on I Still Miss Someone(#10 - 00:15). This one is sweet and totally unlike Johnny Cash. It still works though, a testament to Mr. Cash's songwriting. I really like the raw and ready sound of Thing Called Love(#11 - 00:00). I think Cash would approve.

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