Youth, Sun Records and "Hey Porter"

Born in 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas as one of seven children to the poor, working-class farmers, Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree, John R. Cash was brought up in economic suffering, during the Great Depression. At the age of 12, his older brother Jack died in a tragic accident, leading him to find solace and escape from his own life in music and religion. Around this time, he started to write songs and play guitar, whilst performing for a local radio station. His earliest memories were based around gospel music and radio, with his mother using the very little money they had left to pay for his singing lessons.

He enrolled in the air force in his teens, and served for four years until 1954, when he returned to Memphis and married his first wife, Vivian Liberto. He worked as an appliance salesman and being completely unsatisfied with his life without music, he performed with Luther Grant and Marshall Grant (later to be known as Johnny Cash and "The Tennessee Two") in his spare time.



(Pictured: Impromptu jam session at Sun Records with Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. This later became known as the "Million Dollar Quartet" and Cash's association with such large stars of the rockabilly genre helped to shoot him to mainstream fame)

Having heard about the popularity and controversial Rock 'n' Roll music of Elvis Presley, and "Elvis-mania," Cash was drawn to the record studio that helped develop his fame, Sun Records. The owner Sam Phillips, didn't wish to produce their music, believing there wasn't a market for gospel music. A year later, he called them back wishing to hear original music, and upon hearing a more distinguised, hybrid rockabilly style, they recorded Cash's first songs "Hey Porter" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!" These were met with mediocre success in the country music genre.

Sun Records was the turning point in John R Cash's life, and the moment that he became the Johnny Cash we all know and love today. His appeal was his hybridisation of genres, his rockabilly sounds combined elements of gospel, blues, and rock and roll.