After making a name on Sun Records, Johnny Cash hit the big time when he signed to Columbia Records and hit the ground running with a slew of hard hitting material. This 3 disc, 89 song collection puts together his earliest and most important albums from that label. His 1958 debut includes the classic “Don’t Take Your Love To Town” but there isn’t a weak link in the chain. His spiritual side comes up next as church music from his youth are delivered with sincerity, particularly on “The Old Account” and the rockabilly “ It Was Jesus”, while his 1962 collection includes his own “I Got Shoes” . Rural life was then explored, with material ranging from flood (“Five Feet High”)and sharecropping (“The Man On The Hill”) putting dirt under your nails. Cash then delved into songs of his own heroes like George Jones in “Seasons Of My Heart” and Bob Wills on “Time Changes Everything”. Cash firmed up his reputation on a train-themed album with pieces like “Gong To Memphis” and “The Fable Of Willie Brown”, while his last album of the bunch is appropriately dedicated to the working man, with Cash sounding like Mr. Everyman on “The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer”, “Busted” and “Casey Jones”. The spokesman in black.