CMT Blog: Archive

I think Cowboy Jack Clement is a cool guy for a lot of reasons, but most recently he can claim the distinction of writing "Guess Things Happen That Way," an old Johnny Cash song that made headlines last month for being the billionth download on iTunes. That surprising news made my day because it's one of my favorite Cash tunes and it prompted me to go back and listen to Clement's 2004 album of the same name. Cash lends his resonant voice to a few lines of Clement's easygoing rendition; the Man in Black shows up later on "Ballad of a Teenage Queen," another charming Clement chestnut that Cash famously recorded. But Guess Things Happen That Way isn't a gimmick or just a rehashing of musty material. Instead, Clement offers some fun tunes like "S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y" and "Drinking Carrot Juice," and his sincere reading of "Dreaming My Dreams" is one of the finest I've heard. As someone who's been in the biz for 50 years, Clement's wise delivery also suits his more sagacious selections, like "Every Place I've Ever Been" and "Trapped in an Old Country Song." If you've got a Johnny Cash song in your own digital collection, you should s-e-r-i-o-u-s-l-y consider downloading this Cowboy Jack Clement album, too.