The Holy Land (album)

The Holy Land is a concept album, the third gospel album and 30th overall album by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1969. He recorded the album inspired by a visit to Israel (the Holy Land of the title) with his wife, June Carter Cash and in fact most of the album consists of on-site recordings made by Cash using a portable tape recorder during a visit describing what he sees as he visits holy sites in and around Jerusalem. The remainder of the album consists of gospel songs. All but three of the songs were written by Cash, though the sole single, "Daddy Sang Bass", which reached No. 1 on the Country charts and remained that spot for six weeks, was penned by Carl Perkins.

The cover has a picture of Cash standing in front of the chapel on top of the Mount of Beatitudes, immediately north of the Sea of Galilee. Some versions of the album had a 3-D picture on the cover.

This album features the final Cash recordings made with original Tennessee Two lead guitarist Luther Perkins before Perkins' death.

The album has been released on CD through Harmony Records in 1999 and later by Columbia as part of the Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection box set in 2012.

The concept of Cash visiting Biblical locations and combining storytelling with music would be revisited twice more in his career for the 1973 soundtrack album The Gospel Road and the 2000 release Return to the Promised Land.

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Transcription

Track listing

All tracks composed by Johnny Cash, except where indicated.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Prologue" (narrative)		0:54
2.	"Land of Israel"		2:50
3.	"Mother's Love" (narrative)		1:32
4.	"This Is Nazareth" (narrative)		0:43
5.	"Nazarene"		2:03
6.	"Town of Cana" (narrative)		1:36
7.	"He Turned the Water into Wine"		2:47
8.	"My Wife June at the Sea of Galilee" (narrative by June Carter Cash)		1:32
9.	"Beautiful Words" (narrative with sung interjection by Cash)		1:52
10.	"Our Guide Jacob at Mount Tabor" (narrative interview)		1:54
11.	"The Ten Commandments"	Lew DeWitt	3:59
12.	"Daddy Sang Bass"	Carl Perkins	2:19
13.	"At the Wailing Wall" (narrative)		0:46
14.	"Come to the Wailing Wall"		2:49
15.	"In Bethlehem" (narrative)		1:46
16.	"In Garden of Gethsemane" (narrative)		1:57
17.	"The Fourth Man"	Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith	2:08
18.	"On the Via Delorosa" (narrative)		3:54
19.	"Church of the Holy Sepulchre" (narrative)		1:06
20.	"At Calvary" (narrative)		3:33
21.	"God is Not Dead"		2:45

Personnel

Johnny Cash - vocals, guitar
The Carter Family, Jan Howard,^[1] The Statler Brothers - backing vocals
Luther Perkins, Carl Perkins - electric guitar
Marshall Grant - bass guitar
W.S. Holland - drums

Additional personnel

Charlie Bragg - engineer
Bob Johnston - producer

Charts

Album – Billboard (United States)

Year	Chart	Position
1969	Country Albums	6
1969	Pop Albums	54

Singles – Billboard (United States)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1968	"Daddy Sang Bass"	Country Singles	1

References

^ Papadatos, Markos. "Interview with Jan Howard: Classiest Lady in Country Music". Digital Journal. Retrieved 19 January 2020.

External links

Luma Electronic entry on The Holy Land

Johnny Cash

Studio albums

1950s	Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! The Fabulous Johnny Cash Hymns by Johnny Cash Songs of Our Soil

1960s

1970s

1980s	Rockabilly Blues Classic Christmas The Baron The Adventures of Johnny Cash Johnny 99 Highwayman Rainbow Class of '55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming Heroes Believe in Him Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town Classic Cash Water from the Wells of Home

1990s	Highwayman 2 Boom Chicka Boom The Mystery of Life Country Christmas American Recordings The Road Goes on Forever American II: Unchained

2000–2010s	American III: Solitary Man American IV: The Man Comes Around American V: A Hundred Highways American VI: Ain't No Grave Out Among the Stars