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To say that Johnny Cash cut an imposing swath across the American musical landscape during his tenure as a performer is a bit like saying Death Valley tends to be on the warm side.  Indeed, with over 50 million albums sold, 100 hit singles, duets with everyone from Ray Charles to Bob Dylan and U2 and a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame under his belt, Cash is undeniably one of the most influential musical figures of the last half-century.  While most alt-pop lovers would probably be hard-pressed to rank him too terribly high on the Jars of Clay sound-alike scale, given Cash’s aforementioned widespread influence, his recent resurgence in popularity among younger listeners and the fact that Nashville is the veritable ground zero point for both the Country and Christian music genres, one could argue that the intersection of the two musical entities was only a matter of time.

Stepping back from the electrified modern rock that filled recent efforts such as If I Left the Zoo and The Eleventh Hour, the Who We Are Instead album marks a return of sorts to the stripped-back folk-pop textures of the Jars collective’s debut release.  But, while cuts like “Show You Love” and the sprightly leadoff track, “Sunny Days” tip their hats to the first record’s buoyant, tune-laden acoustic pop/rock, others, such as “Only Alive” and the equally countrified “Amazing Grace,” are indicative of the new album’s overarching tendency towards a slower, unmistakably Cash-influenced aesthetic.  To be sure, even up-tempo songs like “Trouble Is” and the similarly bluegrass-inclined “Lesser Things” (Ash to ash and dust to dust/ Steel on steel or rain to rust) are laden with the tangible sense of loneliness, loss and longing that came to define much of Cash’s most gripping latter-day works.

In fairness, the group’s appropriation of the country and bluegrass formats is still a work in progress.  And the quick alternation between sparkling pop and languishing country pieces does tend to take away some of the album’s continuity.  That said, the Instead project is home to some of the group’s strongest and most direct lyrical statements to date.  And its straight-ahead pop songs are as compelling as anything the foursome has written thus far.  While it isn’t as consistently infectious as the debut nor as sublimely poignant as, say, The Eleventh Hour, the new record earns points for its creators by virtue of their willingness to forego the safe, proven formula and walk the proverbial path less taken for the sake of artistic diversification.  A most admirable detour, indeed.

Bert Gangl  12/19/2003