Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire

Pat Leyland, a former recording artist for Arista records, says “Where the cover can be a valuable weapon in the arsenal of a musician, it must be handled with care” (Leyland.) Deciding to cover a song is a huge commitment for some, the song really must become one’s own. The artist Adam Lambert and the band Home Free have both tried covers of "Ring of Fire" originally written by Merle Kilgore and June Carter Cash and performed by Johnny Cash. This iconic song has been covered by various artists, each in their own different genres and individual skill that they felt most suited to. While many cover attempts have been done of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", none have come close to the success of the original. Johnny Cash was a well-known singer-songwriter

The group consists of five vocalists, Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Chris Rupp, Tim Forrest, and Adam Rupp. The group won the fourth season of Sing Off on NBC in 2013. All five have formal music training, two even have bachelor degrees in music. Home Free has a lead tenor, two harmony voices, and a bass. Baritone Harmony is sung by Chris Rupp. Lead tenor and solos are done by Austin Brown. Tenor Harmony is done by Rob Lundquist. Percussion sounds are done by Adam Rupp. While the cover Home Free has done of “Ring of Fire” is not an exact match to Johnny Cash’s version, it’s a very nice cover. It is upbeat and fun for today’s society to listen to, Austin Brown played a big part in making the song fun to listen to, which his deep voice. Each singer’s voice accommodates one another’s and really makes the cover what it is. The cover has been known to grab attention from listeners who usually would not be interested in country music as well as giving listeners shivers whilst listening to the notes. Although the cover has been given a lot of positive feedback they have also been given the negative. Things such as Johnny Cash would not approve of this, calling it a mockery of such a classical song. Each member of this group was extremely blessed with amazing voices. Tom Junod , an American journalist, made the statement “You can learn a lot about the world by listening to

Adam Lambert is an American singer, songwriter, and stage actor. Jeff Turrentine, articles editor for OnEarth magazine states, “ I confess that even the McCartney album, Pace Holden leaves me shrugging my shoulders and wondering if it was really worth all of the trouble” (Turrentine.) Turrentine is saying is the cover the artist did really worth the effort they put into it, and the way it turned out. Which is how many feel about Lambert’s cover of “Ring of Fire” the cover was much less appealing than the other covers. Lambert definitely made this song unique to match with his own skill set. He completely changed the culture of the sound, although he nicely changed background sounds and instruments to go along with the way he sung and performed the song. It was hard to listen to and did not fit the moral of the song well. Making it hard to connect to and actually understand what the lyrics were saying. Although Lambert is still a very talented musician the song “Ring of Fire” did not suit his style well. He seemed to have put as much soul as he could into the cover it still didn’t compare to the original. His voice is very different than those of the other vocalists