Recorded at the
Town Hall Party
television show in Los Angeles on August 8, 1959, this acts as a companion piece to
Sundazed
's other LP taken from a
broadcast,
Live at Town Hall Party 1958
(recorded in November 1958). Like its predecessor, this is a good set of
Cash
accompanied by
the Tennessee Two
(
Luther Perkins
on guitar and
Marshall Grant
on bass), this time around adding drummer
Mike Fury
(then playing in
Bob Luman
's band). The set -- which is significantly different in song selection than the 1958 live LP, though there's some overlap -- includes some of his best 1950s hits, like
"Guess Things Happen That Way,"
"The Ways of a Woman in Love,"
"Big River,"
"I Walk the Line,"
"Don't Take Your Guns to Town,"
and
"Folsom Prison Blues."
He likes doing his then-new single
"I Got Stripes"
so much, in fact, that he does it twice. Also played are some more obscure tunes, like the
spiritual
"I Was There When It Happened"
and, most unexpectedly, a parodic cover of
Elvis Presley
's
"Heartbreak Hotel."
These are good performances (interspersed with some lightly self-deprecating patter by
) and any live 1950s
counts as historically important to preserve. But as with
's album of the 1958
set, there are a couple of considerations which keep this from being as valuable a piece of history as it could have been. First, the sound isn't that good, as it was taken from the television soundtrack; the voices and instruments are easily audible, but the depth and balance are mediocre. More importantly, you can both hear and see these exact same performances on
Bear Family
DVD
At Town Hall Party
, which also includes the 11 songs from the November 15, 1958 show on the
LP. The lack of visuals is a particular handicap on
"Heartbreak Hotel,"
where much of the comic impact resides in
's silly, but quite enthusiastic, visual impersonation of
Elvis
as well as his singing. So unless you're a vinyl purist or a DVD-less Luddite, the
DVD makes for by far the better alternative if you're interested in this material. ~ Richie Unterberger