*Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread

I didn't accidentally do anything - Not knowing your age or your perspective, but Johnny Cash for decades was not known as the "cool" or "hip" Johnny Cash that people view him as today. He was stone-cold, 100% country music. Outside of the country music circuit, he was known as a country artist and had not really crossed over to the point where too many listeners of alternative or rock or punk or whatever were actively buying his music. And like Brian Wilson's appeal, a lot of those "in the know" who knew Johnny beyond him being a country artist were musicians. The Beastie Boys through the Dust Brothers sampled him on Paul's Boutique - how many listeners of that album at the time would have owned one of Johnny's albums?

Let me give some perspective: Until the "American Recordings" revival and other related revisits of him and his music, culminating in the movie bio, do you know what kind of venues Johnny Cash was playing?

I call it the "lawn chair circuit". Outdoor venues where there was a stage and a big field in front of it, and the concert goers would carry their own lawn chairs to the show to see their favorite country acts. And related venues often included a dinner-theater type of atmosphere where the ticket would include a chicken dinner and cold drink to go with the music.

It was "traditional" country music for several decades before Cash became cool, before Willie became cool, and before country became arena and stadium-filling music. Very Americana, very middle America, and a specific demographic.

Now tell me this: Was the same demographic who view Johnny Cash as the ultimate bad-ass, as the real country rebel and punk going to see Johnny perform in the kinds of venues that he'd most often play for the decades before he became cool in a public sense? Were they watching The Nashville Network (TNN) in the 80's and 90's when Johnny would appear and sing gospel and religious-themed music more often than he did "Cocaine Blues"? Were they buying Johnny's traditional country albums before Rubin and the bio pic?

Sometimes it takes a little convincing to get new and untapped audiences to realize how good or even great an artist is regardless of what style or what genre they're lumped into. If marketing Johnny Cash or Tony Bennett as "cool" or "hip" is what it takes, than so be it. Many, many, many folks who would never have considered having a Cash or Bennett record in their collection became fans..and how were they convinced? Think about it.

Consider that. And consider the reaction Tom Petty got before and after he did the Super Bowl.

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