Johnny Cash's 1956 C.F. Martin & Co. D-21
Musician
Johnny Cash
(American, 1932 - 2003)
Musician
Tommy Cash
(American, born 1940)
Maker
C.F. Martin & Company
(American, founded 1833)
Date1956
ClassificationsMusic
DescriptionJohnny Cash's 1956 C.F. Martin & Co. D-21 acoustic guitar, serial number 147683, featuring a solid Sitka spruce top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides, mahogany neck, fretboard, and bridge, dot markers, Kluson butter-bean tuners, black binding and strap buttons, and a nitrocellulose tortoise-shell grain pickguard. In an original hardshell case with "J.R." initial stickers and airline travel tags.According to Johnny Cash's brother, Tommy Cash, Johnny played the guitar in the late 1950s and gifted it to Tommy in 1960. Tommy also stated that Johnny played the guitar "quite a lot" in 1958-1960. Tommy used this guitar to perform his own song, "Six White Horses." The guitar was then subsequently traded by Tommy to his friend Billy McCravy for music equipment.
Johnny Cash (1932-2003) was an American singer and songwriter who is one of the best-selling artists of all-time, crossing over between country, rockabilly, gospel, and rock and roll to form his own outlaw persona as “The Man in Black.”
Cash began performing as a rockabilly and country artist after auditioning for Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. His 1956 song "I Walk the Line" was a number one hit on the U.S. Country charts and propelled his career. By the 1960s, chart-topping songs like "Ring of Fire," "Understand Your Man," and live versions of "Folsom Prison Blues" and "A Boy Named Sue" cemented Cash's status as one of the most successful country artists. Over the course of his career, Cash released 67 studio albums and 16 live albums. Later in his career, Cash reinvented his sound, covering modern songs such as "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails and "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode - introducing his rich, baritone voice to a new generation.
Cash has sold more than 90 million records across the world and won multiple Grammy Awards spanning from the 1960s to the 2000s. He was inducted into the Country Music (1980) , Gospel Music (2011), Nashville Songwriters (1977), and Rock and Roll (1992) Halls of Fame, speaking to his diverse sound and audience.
3D Model
