When the first volume of Johnny Cash’s AMERICAN series appeared in 1994, it would have been difficult to predict its critical and commercial success, much less the fact that an illness-beset Cash would be turning out a powerful fourth installment of the series eight years later. Like its three predecessors, AMERICAN IV is a home-recorded, bare-bones Rick Rubin production wherein Cash tackles old classics by other writers as well as more contemporary tunes by artists from the rock world, with a smattering of his own new compositions thrown in. It’s also arguably the strongest since the first volume.

Now that the novelty of hearing the Man in Black tackle tunes by the likes of Depeche Mode (”Personal Jesus”) and Nine Inch Nails (”Hurt”) has worn off, we can get past the gimmickry to fully appreciate the power of Cash’s soul-baring interpretations. He brings an equal amount of gravitas to old country and folk tunes like “Streets of Laredo” and “Give My Love to Rose.” To hear Cash’s worn, husky, lived-in voice inhabit the world-weary narrative of the Beatles’ “In My Life” and the graphic, almost spiritual romance of the Ewan MacColl-penned ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” is to be led directly to the heart of these songs’ deepest meanings.

Tracklisting
1. Man Comes Around
2. Hurt
3. Give My Love to Rose
4. Bridge over Troubled Water
5. I Hung My Head
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7. Personal Jesus
8. In My Life
9. Sam Hall
10. Danny Boy
11. Desperado
12. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
13. Tear Stained Letter
14. Streets of Laredo
15. We’ll Meet Again

Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (9/26/03, p.34) – “…Cash stares down death here, yet when the man comes around, you have little choice but to go….It’s a blunt, unsentimental farewell from a man who made a life and art from never flinching.”

Q (01/01/04, p.80) – Ranked #16 in Q’s “The 50 Best Albums of 2003″

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Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man

Johnny Cash went through a lot in the late 1990s and the year 2000: a debilitating nerve disorder put the brakes on his live performances and touring, yet with AMERICAN III: SOLITARY MAN, his spirit and abilities remain undiminished. His voice has taken on a slightly more gentle and reflective quality, and his association with producer Rick Rubin has afforded him the opportunity to choose, and write, songs that are worthy of him.

The Neil Diamond ’60s pop hit “Solitary Man” is given an acoustic, spare reading, yet one can sense the demons of loneliness and frustration behind Cash’s stoic delivery. Nick Cave’s “The Mercy Seat” is an eerie, obsessive litany of the first-person musings and observations of an innocent man’s time of execution. The Cash originals, like the proud yet wryly sarcastic “Country Trash” and devotional love song “Before My Time,” let some light in. The overall sound of AMERICAN III: SOLITARY MAN is predominantly acoustic and intimate, with guitar, fiddle, piano, organ, and harmonium; guest stars Merle Haggard, Sheryl Crow, Tom Petty, and Norman Blake sound right at home with the Man In Black.

Tracklisting
1. I Won’t Back Down
2. Solitary Man
3. That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)
4. One
5. Nobody
6. I See A Darkness
7. Mercy Seat
8. Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)
9. Field Of Diamonds
10. Before My Time
11. Country Trash
12. Mary Of The Wild Moor
13. I’m Leaving Now
14. Wayfaring Stranger

Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (12/29/00, p.140) – Ranked #8 in EW’s Top 10 Albums of 2000 – “…These songs have rarely sounded so authentic, thanks to arrangements that are spare but never colorless and a voice that;s deep in more ways than one.”

Q (1/01, p.91) – Included in Q’s “50 Best Albums of 2000″.

Q (12/00, pp.118-9) – 4 stars out of 5 – “…A regal comeback. It’s a mostly acoustic affair…featuring unlikely covers….as resonant and dignified a covers album as you’ll ever hear.”

CMJ (1/08/01, p.46) – Included in CMJ’s “Year’s Best Triple A Albums” from 2000.

CMJ (10/16/00, p.26) – “…Pure goosebump material….[His] voice is commanding and cavernous in ever more tangible ways…”

No Depression (1-2/01, pp.82-4) – “…It’s a powerful disc….the key to its impact is in the reimagination [of songs] to make them [his]…”

Mojo (Publisher) (p.64) – Ranked #17 in Mojo’s “100 Modern Classics” — “Makes rock songs sound like something as old as the hills.”

Mojo (Publisher) (11/00, p.102) – “…The choice is igenious, their themes of survival, toughness, self-destructyion, sin, redemption and love adding up to an autobiography….his voice is sober, honest and defiant…”

NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.78) – Ranked #32 in NME’s “Top 50 Albums Of The Year”.

NME (Magazine) (10/21/00, p.43) – 9 out of 10 – “…What is remarkable about this is its punishing intensity….stripped down, vivid and pure, emotionally naked stuff from a 68-year-old man who just 12 months ago was very seriously ill…”