Pickin’ Time

Every song has a story. Every take has a date, a room, a set of hands on the instruments. Rolf W. Rödel spent more than eighteen years tracing the complete recording history of Johnny Cash, from a homesick airman cutting an acetate disc in Munich in 1954 to a frail but unwavering voice laying down "Engine 143" at the Cash Cabin Studio in August 2003. The result is a sessionography of remarkable depth and precision, documenting roughly 1,400 studio sessions and over 120 live, radio, and television performances. Built on primary sources from the Country Music Hall of Fame, the American Federation of Musicians, label ledgers, and interviews with the engineers and musicians who were in the room, this book corrects long-standing errors and fills gaps that previous discographies left open. It tracks the lean Sun Records sound, the sweeping Columbia years, the Mercury transition, and the stripped-back intimacy of the American Recordings era under Rick Rubin. An essential reference for serious music historians, discographers, record collectors, and devoted students of the Man in Black.