Greetings, music lovers! When it came to the letter C’s installment in our series “American Music from A to Z in the NLS Music Collection,” the choice was obvious to me: we have many new Johnny Cash songs in our braille music collection, all of which happen to come from the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) in Canada! Today we want to share these exciting new additions with you as well as celebrate and express our appreciation for how these scores arrived in the NLS Music Section’s collection.
Thanks to the advent of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, the NLS Music Section now has the ability to share and exchange braille music with other participating libraries around the world in countries that have also instituted the treaty. The first foreign braille music scores to which the Music Section received access under the Marrakesh Treaty are from Canada’s Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA), the public library service for Canadians with print disabilities. CELA effectively replaced CNIB Library in 2014, establishing itself as a separate organization designed to support and assist public libraries throughout Canada in delivering accessible library materials to Canadians with print disabilities. Similar to the National Library Service (NLS), CELA operates through a nationwide network of libraries that provide access to CELA’s collections and services.
As we began to explore CELA’s rich braille music collection, we noticed many songs written or made famous by Johnny Cash, the Man in Black. We know we have many fans of country music and folk music among our patrons who will be delighted to discover these new additions. Even if you don’t read braille music, you may still greatly enjoy reading the lyrics of these songs, by turns poignant and humorous, which often tell engaging stories of people who are down on their luck and going through hard times. If you’re enduring a rough time, you may find solace in these songs, and know that you’re not alone.
With this post and the listing below, we wish to acknowledge and express gratitude for those who made the Marrakesh Treaty a reality as well as those around the world, including at CELA, who are now working to implement it and bring it to full fruition. Thank you!
Please note that all materials listed below are also available to borrow by mail, not only through BARD. Please contact the Music Section to borrow hard copies of braille music. Call us at 800-424-8567, or e-mail us at [email protected]. If you are new to BARD, you may find the following links helpful: Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) and BARD Access.
The following braille music scores include the vocal line and lyrics in line by line format, chord symbols, and piano accompaniment in bar over bar format.
Johnny Cash songs from CELA:
After the Ball (BRT37162)
All Over Again (BRT37163)
Bad News (BRT37164)
Ballad of a Teenage Queen (BRT37031)
Ballad of Ira Hayes (BRT37032)
The Big Battle (BRT37177)
Big River (BRT37178)
A Boy Named Sue (BRT37017)
Busted, by Harlan Howard (BRT37179)
Come In, Stranger (BRT37180)
Cry, Cry, Cry (BRT37181)
Daddy Sang Bass (BRT37033)
Dark as a Dungeon (BRT37182)
Don’t Take Your Guns to Town (BRT37183)
Five Feet High and Rising (BRT37184)
Flesh and Blood (BRT37185)
Folsom Prison Blues (BRT37186)
Frankie’s Man, Johnny (BRT37187)
(Ghost) Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend) (BRT37210)
Give My Love to Rose (BRT37188)
Guess Things Happen That Way (BRT37189)
Hey, Porter (BRT37190)
I Got Stripes (BRT37191)
I Walk the Line (BRT37192)
I Will Rock and Roll with You (BRT37193)
Jackson (BRT37194)
The Last Time (BRT37195)
Luther’s Boogie (BRT37196)
The Man in Black (BRT37209)
One Piece at a Time (BRT37219)
Oney (BRT37220)
Orange Blossom Special (BRT37034)
The Rebel–Johnny Yuma (BRT37221)
Ring of Fire (BRT37211)
Singin’ in Vietnam Talkin’ Blues (Bring the Boys Back Home) (BRT37222)
So Doggone Lonesome (BRT37035)
Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down (BRT37223)
Tennessee Flat Top Box (BRT37224)
Understand Your Man (BRT37036)
What Do I Care (BRT37225)
What Is Truth? (BRT37226)
Without Love (BRT37227)
To learn more about Johnny Cash, check out the following webpages and books from the NLS collection:
- “Happy Birthday Johnny Cash”: https://blogs.loc.gov/nls-music-notes/2015/03/happy-birthday-johnny-cash/
- “At Folsom Prison”–Johnny Cash (1968). Essay by Michael Streissguth for the Library of Congress National Recording Registry: https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/AtFolsomPrison.pdf
- Cash, Johnny and Patrick Carr. Cash: The Autobiography (DB 48368)
- Cash, Johnny. Man in Black (DB 58372)
- Hilburn, Robert. Johnny Cash: The Life (DB 77605)
- Streissguth, Michael. Johnny Cash: The Biography (DB 63854)
- Streissguth, Michael. Johnny Cash: The Biography (BR 17221)