Wide Open Road (Johnny Cash song)

Cash wrote this song while serving in the U.S. Army in Germany. It is a song about a lovers' quarrel. It is one of those songs in which Cash "chases his roaming [woman] of waits for [her] to return, all while feeling a sense of dislocation and identity trouble because of the woman's departure". Other examples include "Big River", "So Doggone Lonesome", "Port of Lonely Hearts", "Don't Make Me Go", "Next in Line", "There You Go", "Two-Timing Woman". John M. Alexander writes in his book The Man in Song: A Discographic Biography of Johnny Cash, According to AllMusic, this early song "shows the singer still under influence of Hank Williams". It is also "a rarity in featuring the steel guitar of A.W. 'Red' Kernodle, who left the group [The Tennessee Three] shortly afterwards." Cash recollected: == Track listing ==

The opposite side of the single is another song written by Cash himself, "Belshazah". As AllMusic states, that gospel song was "an unusual inclusion in that [Cash's] producer, Sam Phillips, usually recorded only the performer's secular material." * Billboard advertisements list "Belshazah" as the main side and "Wide Open Road" as the flip. == Covers ==

The song has been covered by a number of artists including The Little Willies. == References ==