Johnny Cash: American Recordings V

I don't think my friend Bobby M will like the new Johnny Cash album, American Recordings V: A Hundred Highways, and he's a big Cash fan. I've listened to it three or four times since it arrived via Amazon earlier in the week.

I say this because Bobby wasn't a huge fan of American Recordings 4: The Man Comes Around, calling this album (recorded before the death of his wife, June) a mixed bagged because Cash really strains at times on some of the vocals.

Now, I've listened to AR4 dozens of times, and I completely disagree.

Consider three songs from the earlier record:

* His cover of "Hurt" from the Nine Inch Nails was an instant classic.
* His original song "Give My Love to Rose" won a grammy.
* Listen to his cover of First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and you'll think this is the first time you've ever really heard this song, though everybody from Celine Dion to 98 Degrees have done versions.

This last song (like songs on his new album) is a love poem to his wife. Listen to it carefully, and then think about a guy singing this way about his wife after 35 years of marriage. It's beautiful, and it's touching, and it's made all the more perfect by the imperfections in Cash's voice. The orchestration, which turns the song into a hymn, celebrates a marriage that is clearly sacred to Johnny. Perfection.

Back to his new album. Producer Rick Rubin writes this in his liner notes:

I could always tell how Johnny was feeling each day from the sound of his voice and his breathing. Some days his voice was weak and he sounded like he was panting, trying to get enough air. Other days his voice boomed with power and gravity. You can hear the difference on some of these songs. Sometimes he booms and other times he sounds weaker and more vulnerable, but in the end his ability to convey words in a way the listener can truly feel and believe them is amazingly consistent. He was the master storyteller of our time.

His cover of the Hank Williams song "On the Evening Train," track 6 on the album, is one of the songs where his voice booms. It's a song about a man whose wife has just died, and the child she leaves behind. This is a highlight of American Recordings 5.

I almost did a spit-take when I heard that track 4 was a cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind," perhaps most recently in memory because of the dance version in the late 90s from Stars on 54. Vocally, it's the worst song on the album; but it's also one of my three or four favorites. Johnny Cash isn't and has never been about vocal perfection; he's about story-telling and communicating honest emotions. I like this song; but many people (like Bobby M) may just think it's terrible.

I just hope that producer Rick Rubin doesn't jump the shark on his next Cash album and, yes, there will be another new album coming possibly next year. Seinfeld left the air when it was still at the top of its game, but M*A*S*H (and the dreadful After M*A*S*H) hung around more than a little too long. Will American Recordings 6 be a final great album, or a pitiful attempt to squeeze even more money out of the American Recordings franchise?

Oh, and if you are looking for the single artist performing today who combines folk, country, rock and great songwriting and story-telling in the same way as Cash, check out Tom Russell's new album, Love and Fear. It's probably his best-ever work. Though you are warned: Tom never really found his June Carter, and you don't need to be Stephen Hawking to figure this out after listening to Love and Fear.