American Recordings (album)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American Recordings
Studio album by Johnny Cash

Publication
(s)

1994

Label (s) American Recordings , Warner Bros. Records

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

Country Music ( Alternative Country )

Title (number)

13

running time

42:45

occupation Johnny Cash - vocals, acoustic guitar

production

Rick Rubin

Studio (s)

Rick Rubin's living room and Johnny Cash's log cabin

chronology
Wanted Man
(1994) 		American Recordings Unchained
(1996)

American Recordings is the first album in the " American Recordings " series by country singer Johnny Cash . It was released in November 1994 and was the first album to be released on Rick Rubin's label American Recordings after being renamed Def American .

Songs and collaboration

Rick Rubin wanted to record an album with Johnny Cash that stood out from the often over-produced country productions of the time and was only supposed to live from the fact that Cash's presence unfolds with his singing and guitar playing. Eleven of the 13 pieces were recorded with vocals and guitar only in Rubin's living room or in Cash's log cabin. Tracks 9 and 13 are live recordings from 'The Viper Room'. Cash himself said in the liner notes about the album: "All that matters is that my guitar and I are one."

Rubin motivated Cash to sing whatever he wanted, but probably suggested some titles as well. Cash not only played his own classics like Delia's Gone , but also songs by his friend Kris Kristofferson and his former son-in-law Nick Lowe as well as by Leonard Cohen , Tom Waits and Loudon Wainwright III . Thirteen , which the dark rocker Glenn Danzig had written especially for Cash, received special attention . With the interpretation of non-genre songs suggested by Rubin, which was continued on the following albums of the American Recordings series, Cash was able to win new audiences. The song Tennessee Stud was used for the soundtrack of the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown .

The songs deal with violence, war memories, creeds and the desire for freedom, which is symbolized by the trains referenced in Let the train blow its whistle and Down there by the train . In the video of Delia's Gone shot by Anton Corbijn , Kate Moss plays the title role, who is murdered and buried by Cash.

Track list

  1. Delia's Gone (Karl Silbersdorf, Dick Toops) - 2:17
    Originally recorded by Cash for The Sound of Johnny Cash (1962)
  2. Let the Train Blow the Whistle (Cash) - 2:15
  3. The Beast in Me (Nick Lowe) - 2:45
    Originally recorded by Lowe for The Impossible Bird (1994)
  4. Drive On (Cash) - 2:23
  5. Why Me Lord? (Kris Kristofferson) - 2:20
    Originally recorded by Kristofferson for Jesus Was A Capricorn (1972)
  6. Thirteen (Glenn Danzig) - 2:29
    Written by Danzig for Cash and later recorded by the band Danzig for Danzig 6:66 Satan's Child (1999)
  7. Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy's Prayer) (Alan Lomax, John A. Lomax, Roy Rogers, Tim Spencer) - 3:52
    Originally recorded by Cash for Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965)
  8. Bird on a Wire (Leonard Cohen) - 4:01
    Originally recorded by Cohen for Songs from a Room (1969)
  9. Tennessee Stud [live] (Jimmy Driftwood) - 2:54
  10. Down There by the Train ( Tom Waits ) - 5:34
    Written by Waits for cash and later by Waits on his rarities collection Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards published
  11. Redemption (Cash) - 3:03
  12. Like a Soldier (Cash) - 2:50
  13. The Man Who Couldn't Cry [live] (Loudon Wainwright III) - 5:01
    Originally recorded by Wainwright for Attempted Mustache (1973)

Commercial win

After the commercially unsuccessful period since the early eighties, Cash once again had an album that was popular with critics and buyers with American Recordings . In 1994 the album was 110 on the Billboard 200 and was at least 23 on the Top Country Albums. Not quite 500,000 copies of the album were sold in the USA.

Awards

American Recordings won the 1995 Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording . The album was 364th on Rolling Stone 's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 1994, it was at the top of several annual rankings: It was ranked 4th among Mojo's "25 best albums of 1994" in the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll It reached number 7 by The Village Voice and number 15 on The Face . The album was number 23 on the NME and was also album of the month there. Even Q led American Recordings of the 50 best albums of the year 1994th

Critical appraisal

In the review of the American Rolling Stone, Paul Evans promised Cash to be irrefutably cool. Rubin has created a production with a bare guitar and Cash's wise voice that is tougher than leather. It was the album that Cash had to make, both grimly devoted to the legend Cashs and entirely contemporary. Here country is as cathartic as country can be. In the German Rolling Stone, American Recordings was described as "as if God were personally reading from the Old Testament". Despite the abandonment of the familiar boom-chicka-boom rhythm of earlier Cash recordings, "no album shows the Man In Black more clearly, darker and more at the height of his art". Entertainment Weekly said Cash's voice was "the Grand Canyon of American music". The Allmusic Guide noted that while the album was partially overrated, it put Cash back in the spotlight, where it belongs.

The American Recordings series

After the success of American Recordings , Cash continued to work with Rubin until his death. This was followed by the releases of Unchained , American III: Solitary Man , American IV: The Man Comes Around and the albums American V: A Hundred Highways (2006) and American VI: Ain't No Grave (2010) , released after his death .

swell

  1. ↑ a b Review: Cash, Johnny - The Gospel Music of Johnny Cash. A Story of Faith and Redemption at powermetal.de
  2. ↑ Review by A Cup Of Coffey (English)
  3. ↑ a b c Mark Deming: American Recordings on allmusic.com (English)
  4. ↑ a b Maik Brüggemeyer: Repeat # 39: Johnny Cash - American Recordings ( Memento from September 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) on rollingstone.de
  5. ↑ Cash. Enough said. ( Memento of October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on jamsbio.com (English)
  6. ↑ a b The Johnny Cash Story ( Memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on countrymusichalloffame.com (English)
  7. ↑ a b 364 American Recordings on rollingstone.com (English)
  8. ↑ Mojo: End of year lists on rocklistmusic.co.uk (English)
  9. ↑ The 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll on robertchristgau.com (English)
  10. ↑ The Face Lists on rocklistmusic.co.uk (English)
  11. ↑ 1994 NME Albums on rocklistmusic.co.uk (English)
  12. ↑ Johnny Cash American Recordings CD on cduniverse.com (English)
  13. ↑ Q Magazine: End of year Lists on rocklistmusic.co.uk (English)
  14. ↑ Paul Evans: Johnny Cash: American Recordings ( Memento of November 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on rollingstone.com (English)
  15. ↑ Ralf Schlüter: Review of American Recordings (CD) in Rolling Stone, December 1994 (Pay Wall!)
  16. ↑ David Browne: American Recordings (1994) on ew.com (English)