American Recordings (album)

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Professional reviews
American Recordings

Studio album by Johnny Cash
Released	1994
Recorded	May 17, 1993 – December 7, 1993
Length	42:45
Label	American/Sony
Producer(s)	Rick Rubin
All Music Guide link
Johnny Cash chronology
Return to the Promised Land (1993)	American Recordings (1994)	The Road Goes on Forever (1995)
American series chronology
	American Recordings (1994)	Unchained (1996)

American Recordings is a Grammy Award-winning album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in 1994 (see 1994 in music). In 2003, the album was ranked number 364 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock than for country music. Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded the album in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. For years Cash was often at odds with his producers after he had discovered with his first producer, Sam Phillips, that his voice was better suited to a stripped-down musical style. Most famously he disagreed with Jack Clement over his sound, Clement having tried to give Cash's songs a "twangy" feel and to add strings and barbershop-quartet-style singers. His successful collaboration with Rick Rubin was in part due to Rubin seeking a minimalist sound for his songs.

The songs "Tennessee Stud" and "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" were recorded live at the Viper Room, a Sunset Strip, Los Angeles nightclub owned at the time by Johnny Depp.

The video for the first single, the traditional song "Delia's Gone," (directed by Anton Corbijn and featuring Kate Moss) was put into rotation on MTV, and even appeared on Beavis and Butt-head. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be Cash's finest album since the late 1960s, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as heavy metal band Danzig (whose frontman, Glenn Danzig, penned a song called "Thirteen" specifically for Cash) and Tom Waits helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received a Grammy for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards.

[edit] Track listing

"Delia's Gone" (Karl Silbersdorf, Dick Toops) – 2:18

Originally recorded by Cash for The Sound of Johnny Cash (1962)
"Let the Train Blow the Whistle" (Cash) – 2:15
"The Beast in Me" (Nick Lowe) – 2:45

Originally recorded by Lowe for The Impossible Bird (1994)
"Drive On" (Cash) – 2:23
"Why Me Lord?" (Kris Kristofferson) – 2:20

Originally recorded by Kristofferson for Jesus Was a Capricorn (1972)
"Thirteen" (Glenn Danzig) – 2:29

Later recorded by Danzig for 6:66 Satan's Child (1999)
"Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy's Prayer)" (John Lomax, Alan Lomax, Roy Rogers, Tim Spencer) – 3:52

Originally recorded by Cash for Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965)
"Bird on a Wire" (Leonard Cohen) – 4:01

Originally recorded by Cohen for Songs from a Room (1969)
"Tennessee Stud" (live) (Jimmy Driftwood) – 2:54

Originally a hit single for Eddy Arnold (1959)
"Down There by the Train" (Tom Waits) – 5:34

Written by Waits for Cash, later released on his Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards rarities collection.
"Redemption" (Cash) – 3:03
"Like a Soldier" (Cash) – 2:50
"The Man Who Couldn't Cry" (live) (Loudon Wainwright) – 5:03

Originally recorded by Wainwright for Attempted Mustache (1973)