Charlie and Ira Louvin wrote “Cash on the Barrelhead” and recorded it as the Louvin Brothers on 4 May 1956 at Music City Recordings on 16th Avenue South in Nashville, with Ken Nelson producing. Charlie sang and played guitar and Ira sang and played mandolin, with Paul Yandell and George McCormick on guitars, Lightnin’ Chance on bass and Buddy Harman on drums. Capitol released it in August 1956 on single F3523 as the B-side of “You’re Running Wild,” and it reappeared in 1961 on the brothers’ LP Encore.
The title is an old expression for payment on the spot, and the song is a hard-luck comedy built on it. Picked up for loafing in the county seat, the singer is told by the judge to pay a fine or serve thirty days. A good-natured jailer lets him phone long distance, but the operator wants the whole charge before she will put the call through. When he is finally out and footsore after days on the road, the Greyhound driver wants the fare before the wheels roll. Each chorus spells out the same terms: no money down, no credit.
Jim & Jesse recorded it for their tribute LP Saluting the Louvin Brothers (Epic, 1969). Gram Parsons, with Emmylou Harris singing harmony, joined it to his own “Hickory Wind” in “Medley Live from Northern Quebec,” a staged live track on Grievous Angel (Reprise, 1974). The Dreadful Snakes, with Pat Enright singing lead and Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Roland White, Blaine Sprouse and Mark Hembree playing, cut it for Snakes Alive! (Rounder, 1984), and Leftover Salmon included it on Euphoria (1997).
Dolly Parton sang it on The Grass Is Blue (Sugar Hill/Blue Eye, 1999), produced by Steve Buckingham, with Claire Lynch and Keith Little singing harmony and Bryan Sutton, Jim Mills, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan and Barry Bales playing. The album won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album at the 43rd Grammy Awards. Joe Nichols and Rhonda Vincent sang it as a duet on the Louvin tribute Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers (Universal South, 2003), which won the Grammy for Best Country Album.
