Walk The Line

Saturday afternoon, Jaclyn and I took a rare visit to the local movie house to see Walk the Line.

Being a Johnny Cash aficionado, I had prepared myself for disappointment. From the moment I was old enough to understand what music was, the name Johnny Cash was instilled into my vocabulary. For hours on end, I used to get out my Dad's albums and listen to them or hold a spoon (my microphone) and sing along. I thought many of Johnny Cash's songs were written about my Dad. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would grab my air guitar, strum a few chords, and proudly state that I wanted to be Johnny Cash. The point I am trying to make here is that the man's music has been a very important part of my life.

Note: If you are the type of person who only listens to music occasionally or simply likes anything with a "good beat", then you probably will not understand.

Thankfully, this movie did not disappoint. I left the theatre feeling that I knew the man just a little better than I did two hours earlier. Seeing Johnny Cash perform on the same bill as Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley really gives the audience a sense of history as well.

Of course, the best memories of Johnny Cash will be the vivid imagery that lives in my mind. His music will always be the soundtrack of my childhood. "Orange Blossom Special" will always be about the Illinois Central Gulf railway that ran behind my house, "Wanted Man" will always be the musical account of my father's adventures early in life, and those "little girls that hate to see me go" that he sings of in "Understand Your Man" will always be my two sisters watching their Dad leave for work in the morning from their bedroom window.

They are my memories. They only have to make sense to me.