Unchained (album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unchained
Unchained cover
Studio album by Johnny Cash
Released November 5, 1996
Recorded 1995, 1996
Genre Country
Length 41:11
Label American Recordings/
Warner Bros. Records
Producer Rick Rubin
Professional reviews
Johnny Cash chronology
The Road Goes on Forever
(1995)		 Unchained
(1996)		 VH1 Storytellers: Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson
(1998)
American series chronology
American Recordings
(1994)		 Unchained
(1996)		 American III: Solitary Man
(2000)

Unchained is the second album in Johnny Cash's American Recording series. On the album, Cash is backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Like all Cash's American albums, it is produced by Rick Rubin. Unchained focuses more on covers and less on original material than the first album in the series.

In addition to three of Cash's own compositions, Unchained contained songs by Soundgarden ("Rusty Cage") and Beck ("Rowboat"), as well as a guest appearance from Flea, bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on "Spiritual" and Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, of Fleetwood Mac, on "Sea of Heartbreak". The album also included a cover of the classic 1962 Hank Snow song, "I've Been Everywhere", written by Geoff Mack.

Despite being virtually ignored by country music radio and the Nashville establishment, Unchained received a Grammy for Best Country Album. Cash and American Recordings posted a "thank you" to the Nashville country music industry in Billboard Magazine after winning the award in the form of the infamous photo of Cash giving the middle finger to the camera taken back in 1969 during his San Quentin prison performance. Cash allegedly chose the picture to illustrate his frustration with Nashville's simultaneous embrace of pop-oriented, new country artists like Garth Brooks and their abandonment of him and the other aging "country" artists who had defined the genre.[citation needed]

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Rowboat" (Beck) – 3:44
    Originally recorded by Beck for Stereopathetic Soulmanure (1994)
  2. "Sea of Heartbreak" (Hal David/Paul Hampton) – 2:42
    Originally a hit single for Don Gibson (1961)
  3. "Rusty Cage" (Chris Cornell) – 2:49
    Originally recorded by Soundgarden for Badmotorfinger (1991)
  4. "The One Rose (That's Left in My Heart)" (Del Lyon/Lani McIntire) – 2:26
    Originally published in 1936, also recorded by George Morgan and Hank Snow
  5. "Country Boy" (Cash) – 2:31
    Originally recorded by Cash for Sun, appears on With His Hot and Blue Guitar (1957)
  6. "Memories Are Made of This" (Richard Dehr/Terry Gilkyson/Frank Miller) – 2:19
    Originally a hit single by Dean Martin and The Easy Riders (1956)
  7. "Spiritual" (Josh Haden) – 5:06
    Originally recorded by Spain for The Blue Moods of Spain (1995)
  8. "The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea" (Maybelle Carter/Anita Carter/Helen Carter/June Carter Cash) – 2:32
    Originally recorded by The Louvin Brothers for Satan is Real (1960)
  9. "Southern Accents" (Tom Petty) – 4:41
    Originally recorded by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for Southern Accents (1985)
  10. "Mean Eyed Cat" (Cash) – 2:33
    Originally recorded by Cash for Sun, appears on Sings Hank Williams (1960)
  11. "Meet Me in Heaven" (Cash) – 3:21
  12. "I Never Picked Cotton" (Bobby George/Charles Williams) – 2:39
    Originally recorded by Roy Clark for I Never Picked Cotton (1970)
  13. "Unchained" (Jude Johnstone) – 2:51
    Later recorded by Johnstone for Coming of Age (2002)
  14. "I've Been Everywhere" (Geoff Mack) – 3:17
    Originally a hit single by Lucky Starr (1959) and Hank Snow (1962)

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

  • Rick Rubin - Producer
  • David Ferguson - Engineer
  • Sylvia Massy - Engineer, Mixing
  • John Ewing Jr., Greg Fidelman, Eddie Miller, Michael Stock - Assistant Engineers
  • Gene Grimaldi, Eddy Schreyer - Mastering
  • Martyn Atkins - Art Direction, Photography
  • Christine Cano - Art Direction, Design, Photography, Inlay Photography
  • Andy Earl - Photography

[edit] Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1996 The Billboard 200 170
1996 Top Country Albums 26

[edit] Awards

Best Country Album

[edit] External links

 This 1990s country album-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.