Saturday, September 13, 2003

So I've been too busy moping to write about Vegas, so I think I'm just going to drop it. As the ads say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. I will mention that Johnny Cash was my soundtrack on the drive to Vegas.

I've listened to The Wind a few times and enjoyed it very much. As one review I'm sure I've linked to below said, how can you be objective when he hasn't been dead a week yet? But it really good, and surprising how "small" it can be at times, in a good way. Death, while ever present, isn't some boulder ready to fall and crush the whole thing in any moment. On Monday, I made a point of staying near my hotel room, so I could watch Letterman; he had some nice things to say about Zevon, and they closed the show with Zevon's performance of "Mutineer" from his last appearance on Letterman, his last public performance, I believe.

Now I've been watching CMT's Johnny Cash tribute programming. A nice, short concert he gave in a Nashville prison in the '70s, his "Inside Fame" (their version of Behind the Music), and a tribute program CMT put together. They premiered June Carter Cash's new video, which was nice to see, Johnny and her looking like they were having fun making music together until the end. I suppose neither Zevon's nor Cash's passing can be called a surprise, but I think especially in Cash's case, it really is a surprise. I for one never really appreciated just how huge Johnny Cash was, and just how huge the loss is. We still have his music, and our memories of him, but especially with a man who was as prolific as Cash in his final years, it's very hard to let go.

The Grand Ole Opry is having a tribute to Roy Acuff tonight, which I just stumbled upon watching the Johnny Cash programming. He would have been 100 years old tomorrow. As I type this, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band are taking the stage. So I'm glad I stumbled onto this.

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