One of the best covers I’ve heard of “I Walk the Line.”
Charles Wesley Godwin delivered a beautiful acoustic cover of Johnny Cash’s iconic country standard “I Walk The Line,” and I simply cannot get enough.
Of course, Cash’s voice was one of a kind and he’s one of the greatest to ever do it, and there’s been plenty of less than stellar covers of this song over the years but this… this is pretty damn good.
CWG has an incredibly unique and haunting voice of his own, which is certainly the bare minimum required to attempt this song. Plus, the majestic background of where he filmed this and simple acoustic guitar is very fitting and makes it even better.
“I Walk The Line” was released as a part of Cash’s album Johnny Cash with His Hot And Blue Guitar, which was his debut studio album. The song stood out from the rest of the album and quickly became Cash’s most popular tune, holding the number one spot on the Billboard country charts for an impressive 43 straight weeks and selling over two million copies.
The tune’s chord progression was viewed to be rather unique. It is said to be inspired by a backwards playback of guitar runs on Johnny Cash’s tape recorder while he was stationed in Germany in the Air Force.
It is also believed that Cash originally wanted “I Walk The Line” to be a slow ballad, but those at the recording studio opted to speed it up to the classic rhythm that it is so well known for today.
The song also acted as inspiration for the title of the 2005 biopic Walk The Line featured Joaquin Phoenix playing Cash and Reese Witherspoon playing June Carter Cash.
“I Walk The Line” was written by Cash as a pledge to his first wife Vivian that he would stay loyal to her while he was touring across the country, and after being released in 1956, went on to become his first #1 on the Billboard charts.
The rest as, they say, is glorious country music history… or something like that, right?
CWG also just released his impressive major label debut album Family Ties in September, and even though it was exceptional from top to bottom, I’m kinda wishing we would’ve gotten a cover of this song on there too…
There’s always next time, I guess. Do yourself a favor and check it out, I think you’ll be pretty impressed:
“I Walk the Line”
