On October 23^rd at 9:00 p.m. (EST), the Biography Channel will be premiering a two-hour documentary special entitled Johnny Cash’s America.

Johnny Cash’s America marks the first collaboration between the Cash Estate, Sony Music, the award-winning team of Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon (Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues and Muddy Waters Can’t Be Satisfied, with Morgan Neville), and Executive Producer John Carter Cash, and offers us an intimate portrait of the man, the musician, the artist, the brother, the friend, the husband, and father that was and (in many ways) still is Johnny Cash. The documentary features personal interviews with Johnny’s sister Joanne, his son John Carter Cash, daughters Cindy and Rosanne, and many of his friends, including Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Tim Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Ozzy Osborne, and Al Gore, among many others. The special will also present, for the first time, a 1965 solo performance of “Five Feet High and Rising” from The Johnny Cash Show, a rehearsal of a Highwaymen recording session, and outtakes from Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan’s Eat the Document documentary.

WATCH IT! I’ve tried a million different ways to word this piece and attract your fancy, but that’s the most straight-forward and appropriate way to put it. Whatever you’re doing Thursday night, October 23^rd, drop it! Cancel all appointments, turn off your phone, lock the doors, and devote these two hours to pay homage, to gain a deeper understanding, and tap into the wellspring of the legend and legacy that is “The Man in Black.”

The geniuses and gurus behind the Bio Channel know exactly what they’re doing by premiering a two-hour collection of rare footage, unseen photos, and nearly 27 previously unheard recordings of Johnny Cash songs just two weeks prior to the most important Election Day in (at least) the last 50 years, and I applaud them for it.

It’s no news that we are living in unprecedented times in the history of the United States of America, and you and I, the average Joe and Jane Citizens of this country, have been getting gorged to the gills the last several months with a glutton’s feast of political promises, plans, prerogatives, and panders. Through the eye-gouging, ear-splitting hours of debates, stump speeches, and campaign ads, one word seems to be bubbling up to the surface of the American mind above all the rest, as we approach the most important decision amid the awkward chaos and confusion of our national adolescence -– leadership.

Johnny Cash embodied leadership by the humble honesty of his service, concern, and love for his neighbor — people like you and me. But most of all, for the poor, beaten-down, imprisoned, marginalized, and disenfranchised who are all but forgotten in the Sisyphean struggle for the almighty dollar and elusive chimera of prosperity. In a country and a world that wants to define itself by the hard-cut and conflicting lines and divisions it draws between faith, politics, race, sex, class, and nationality, Johnny Cash chose to walk those lines and bring together the ties that bind us all as flesh and blood human beings -– and he did it with his music.

The signs of the times demand that we come together. The futures of our children and their children after them depend on us, right now, to lay down the past sins, resentments, grudges, and conflicts that have torn us apart, and to join hands together toward a brighter future. Such a unity is kindled by the flames of inspiration, sympathy, and faith. Johnny Cash, in his career, his person, his music, and his legend, has somehow become the symbol of such unifying inspiration to the weary, sympathy for the poor, and devout faith to the hopeless. I think it’s crucial that we take the time to reflect upon the example and message to which “The Man in Black” was pointing us.

From the Bio Channel’s website (I couldn’t have put it better myself):

“Wading in the controversies of his time, Cash was a man who believed in God but was a friend to the Devil, a patriot and a drug addict, a friend to Presidents and an ally to prisoners. His America was not red, white or blue; it was black.”

Again, WATCH IT!!!

(…and if you don’t, there’s an encore on Friday, October 24th at 10:00 p.m. [EST]).

Popularity: 3% [?]