By the time Johnny Cash had produced American III: Solitary Man<\/i> for Rick Rubin\u2019s American Recordings, he had reestablished himself as a respected elder statesman of country and Americana music that still had the chops to release worthwhile new material rather than living off of past success. As his health has begun declining by this point, this third release in the American series seems much more subdued that the previous offering. This album also installed the \u201cAmerican:\u201d nomenclature on the albums that make his American Recordings series easily recognizable, with the added benefit of giving a discophile an easy method of listening to the albums in the order they were released.<\/p>\n
The core of American III<\/i> is solid version of several covers, specifically, \u201cI Won\u2019t Back Down,\u201d which some may see as a defiant anthem to his illnesses except that Cash didn\u2019t write it, \u201cSolitary Man,\u201d U2\u2019s \u201cOne\u201d and Nick Cave\u2019s \u201cThe Mercy Seat.\u201d Another remarkable cover is a forgotten Bert Williams tune called \u201cNobody,\u201d which was a vaudeville hit at the turn of the 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Cash also turned in some good originals for this album as well.\u00a0 \u201cField Of Diamonds\u201d is performed as a duet with June Carter, whose voice at this stage was not at its best, but the song has its charm. \u201cBefore My Time\u201d is a poignant song of love in old age, and \u201cCountry Trash\u201d is a tongue-in-cheek swipe at all those who look down on rural people. \u201cI\u2019m Leavin\u2019 Now\u201d is Cash\u2019s best original offering on the album, and even though it sounds very similar to Hank Snow\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Movin\u2019 On,\u201d the duet with Merle Haggard on this track is superb. One final song of note is the last track, \u201cWayfaring Stranger,\u201d is an old yet ageless spiritual (also sometimes known as \u201cWayfaring Pilgrim\u201d) that is sung beautifully, with a haunting accordion backdrop that blends easily into the ominous minor key melody.<\/p>\n On American III<\/i>, Cash seems to have hit his stride with the American label, settling into an Americana sound, which is exactly what he wanted: not too many frills, but enough to keep the listener engaged. The wide expanse of song selection also keeps the material interesting as the album progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":32052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5664],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43798","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnny-cash","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43798"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}