Rockabilly Blues

Rockabilly Blues is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1980. Highlights include "Cold Lonesome Morning," which had some minor chart success (No. 53 in the country charts), "Without Love," by his son-in-law, Nick Lowe, and a cover of the witty "The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over." The first two of the aforementioned songs were the only singles from the album, though "Without Love" hardly enjoyed any chart success, peaking at No. 78. "The Twentieth Century is Almost Over" was re-recorded five years later by Cash and Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, collectively known as The Highwaymen, on their first album entitled Highwayman, though it was, in essence, a duet with Nelson.

Critical reception
Robert Christgau deemed Rockabilly Blues "an honorable country album with some pretty good songs on it." The Globe and Mail concluded that the album "has more to do with traditional country music than it does hot country-rock." The Boston Globe opined that "best of all is Cash's long awaited discovery of John Prine ('The 20th Century Is Almost Over')."

Personnel

 * Johnny Cash - vocals, rhythm guitar
 * Bob Wootton, Pete Wade, Cliff Parker - electric guitar
 * Martin Belmont, Jerry Hensley, Jack Routh, Marty Stuart, Eddy Shaver - guitar
 * Jack Clement - dobro, acoustic guitar, producer
 * Dave Kirby - acoustic guitar, guitar
 * Jerry Hensley - electric, acoustic and rhythm guitar, dobro, harmony vocals
 * Billy Joe Shaver - guitar, gut-string guitar
 * Philip Donnelly - guitar
 * Bobby Thompson - acoustic guitar, banjo
 * Dave Edmunds - guitar, engineer
 * W.S. Holland, Jerry Carrigan, Larrie Londin, Kenny Malone, Pete Thomas - drums
 * Floyd Chance - upright bass
 * Earl Poole Ball - electric and acoustic piano, producer
 * Daniel Sarenana, John Willis - brass
 * Joe Allen, Joe Osborn - electric bass
 * Nick Lowe - electric bass, producer
 * Shane Keister - Moog synthesizer, Prophet 5 synthesizer
 * Terry McMillan - harmonica
 * Irv Kane, Rex Peer - trombone on "One Way Rider"
 * Don Sheffield, George Cunningham - trumpet on "One Way Rider"
 * June Carter Cash - additional vocals on "One Way Rider"
 * Charles Cochran - horn arrangement on "One Way Rider"

Production

 * Album produced by Earl Poole Ball
 * "Without Love" produced by Nick Lowe
 * "It Ain't Nothing New Babe" and "One Way Rider" produced by Jack Clement
 * Engineers: Gene Eichelberger at Quadrafonic Studio, Nashville, TN; Curt Allen at JMI Recording Studio, Nashville, TN; Dave Edmunds at U.K. Pro Studio, London, England
 * Back-up Engineers: Willie Pevear, Barbara Cline at Quadraphonic Studio, Nashville TN
 * Recorded at Quadraphonic Studio, JMI Recording Studio, U.K. Pro Studio
 * Front Cover Photography: Leonard Kamsler
 * Reissue Producer: Dave Nives
 * Project Coordinator: Kajetan Koci
 * Reissue Designer: Suzanne Ammon