Johnny Cash - Christmas: There'll Be Peace in the Valley

Johnny Cash approached Christmas the way he approached everything: plainly, reverently and with an eye on the people who had it hardest. This Columbia/Legacy collection gathers his holiday recordings into a single LP, and it plays less like a party record than a quiet evening by the fire with the Man in Black.

Much of the material comes from his 1960s Columbia years and leans on story and spoken word as much as song. "Ringing the Bells for Jim," "Here Was a Man" and "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver" are classic Cash narratives, heavy with empathy, while "The Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night" and "Blue Christmas" get the stripped-back boom-chicka-boom treatment. The gospel side of his catalog comes through on "Matthew 24" and the closing "(There'll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)," a song he returned to throughout his life.

For anyone who finds most holiday music too sugary, this is the antidote: honest, devotional and unmistakably Cash.

This single-LP compilation presents fourteen tracks on black vinyl.