Update: Giveaway: Celebrate the holiday season with Johnny Cash!

Update: The winners (and their favorite Johnny Cash songs) are:

• Cathy P. – Jackson  (I’m going to Jackson)
• Marci C. – (Ghost) Riders in the Sky
• Julie T. who said, "My 10 yr old loves Johnny Cash so I asked him what his favorite song is and
  he said " Hey Porter" and Highway man."

On November 13 Shout! Factory will release two special DVDs just in time for the holiday season. The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1976 and The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1977 are the first releases to come out of the exclusive agreement between Shout! Factory and the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, which allows Shout! Factory to release DVDs taken from television shows archived in the Museum and representing many of country music’s all-time top artists. These DVDs will mark the first time in 30 years that these Christmas specials have been seen.

Johnny and June Carter Cash went to their homes in Bon Aqua, andHendersonville, Tennessee to tape The Johnny Cash Christmas Special1976. After opening the show, Johnny takes guest Tony Orlando for aride around his property, teasing him about country versus city life,and promising that “June makes the best snake and potatoes around.” Inaddition to several stellar performances, including “Christmas As IKnew It,” the special includes a medley of songs from Stephen Foster,“a man from the North,” Cash says, “who wrote such great things aboutthe South.” The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1976, which originallyaired December 6, 1976, on CBS, also features special guests Roy Clark,Merle Travis, Barbara Mandrell, and Billy Graham.

The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1977 includes an all-star tribute toElvis Presley, who had passed away two months prior. Taped atNashville’s Grand Ole Opry House, fellow Sun Records labelmates androckabilly pioneers Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison joinCash on “This Train Is Bound For Glory” in memory of Presley, whoseaffinity for such sacred music was well known. In addition to aselection of Christmas songs, many hit singles are performed on thisspecial, including Perkins’s “Blue Suede Shoes,” Orbison’s “Oh, PrettyWoman,” and Lewis’s 1957 Sun smash “Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On.”Cash goes on to recall a life-changing holiday season he experiencedwhile stationed in Germany in the early 1950s. “I was lonesome,homesick and had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,”he explains. “But one day I walked four miles through the snow to alittle pawn shop where there was a guitar in the window with afive-dollar price tag.”

In recent years, Shout! Factory has cultivated a deeper relationshipwith the country music community, releasing country titles such asSolomon Burke’s Nashville, Jessi Colter’s Out Of The Ashes, and JohnPrine Live On Soundstage 1980. On September 4, Shout! Factory releaseda collection of home movies from former Museum Artist-In-ResidenceCowboy Jack Clement (a longtime friend of Johnny Cash) titledShakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan.

Watch two of the videos from the specials:
“In The Pines” by The Carter Family (from ’76) video streams: Windows Media and QuickTime
“Christmas Time’s A Comin’” by Johnny Cash (from ’77) video streams: Windows Media and QuickTime

Enter to win one of three sets of BOTH DVDs by answering this question:  What is your favorite Johnny Cash song? Email your answer AND full name and mailing address to celebritybabyblog@gmail.com – make sure you put "Johnny Cash" in the subject line or your entry won’t be counted.

(The giveaway closes Saturday, November 3rd at 9 am EST.)