JOHNNY CASH

„american recordings“

(American, 1994)

With this record, Rick Rubin re-invented Johnny Cash and even though Rubin himself has history and stories enough for an article all himself, nobody towers as high as the man himself: Johnny Cash. After the dreadful Eighties and being destroyed by CBS there was an awful silence about Johnny Cash for a decade or so. The music industry nearly managed to do what drug-addictions, pill-bopping and an overall excessive musical lifestyle weren’t able to – destroy a living legend. The man in black. The rough-cut king of country. And suddenly there was a new record. Underneath mighty letters spelling out CASH stood the man himself, guitar-case in front of him, one black and one white dog to his sides and looking as if he just came back from hell. And he might have. Being destroyed isn’t funny. But Cash looks straight ahead, directly and firm into the face of the onlooker. Although Johnny Cash was already bestricken by the sickness that has been troubling him for the last ten years, he stands tall in that grandiose black-and-white-photograph that tells of the hardship and the experiences behind that rugged face. Gone is the young entertainer, the sharp rockabilly, the excessive country-rocker. Life has left it’s scars on Johnny Cash but, as Kris Kristofferson once said, in a song written about him: “Runnin’ from his devils and reachin’ for the stars, and losin’ all he’s loved along the way. But if this world keeps right on turnin’ for the better or the worse, and all he ever gets is older and around, from the rockin’ of the cradle to the rolling of the hearse, the going up was worth the coming down.” This time has now come and summing it all up, we can well conclude, that the going up was worth the coming down.

Rick Rubin, and I sing his praise for this, had the genius idea, that gave Johnny Cash back his life, his pride, his soul. Do away with all the pomp, the kitsch, the big arrangements. All you have on this record is the man and his guitar singing the songs he has always loved to sing, about the troubles and incongruities in man’s life, about the bad and the good sides. Those songs which tell truths deeply rested in everybody’s experience but rarely ever put in words as clear and pure as these. Emotions that Cash has felt himself, so that you always know when you hear the man singing, that he is feeling the songs. There is no importance on any technical abilities, actually Cash is no more than an experienced guitarist, not even so good a singer (not in his age anymore). But silence and thoughtful listening falls on ever room this full, sombre voice falls in. Cash doesn’t do a lot, only what is necessary. He knows what is necessary to reach full effect. Imagine a dark room with only hundred or two people in the audience as you can hear on some tracks in the background, or better yet, a lonely porch on a farm in the wilderness of the west, with the stars shining bright and the moon listening.

And what you will hear is a great selection of songs, reaching from the very old times, with cowboy’s prayers (“Oh bury me not”), murder ballads (“Delia’s gone” – already recorded once or twice by Cash in the Sixties) and old traditionals about horses, right through the last sixty years of music, from Leonard Cohens “Bird on a wire” up to Loudon Wainwright III.s “The man who couldn’t cry” (a modern storyteller-song if there ever was one) and Nick Lowe’s “The beast in me”. Already he shows his connection to the modern music of all genres with “Thirteen” by Danzig. (How much of this was Rubin’s influence? What exactly is their relationship?) In between are some of his originals, who stand no way behind the milestones around them. One dealing with the Vietnam war (“Drive on”), one a religious song (“Redemption”) and one that is a truly beautiful song about the regret of a man realizing in his latter years all the wrongs he has done (“Like a soldier”). Even Tom Waits contributes a tune called “Down there by the train”, that I haven’t ever heard sung by Waits himself. All in all there are thirteen timeless songs, recorded in a timeless manner, in pure and stripped versions. All you get is this great, old voice recapping songs over sparse but fitting guitar-chords. The way Cash has done it for years, though not on record any more.

On the following albums more and more people join in. There came Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow and Flea. Even old-time friends such as Merle Haggard or Earl Scruggs and Marty Stuart. Relatives and loved-ones from the Carter-Cash-Clan. This one album started a whole slew of other old-time-heroes doing stripped-down, new recordings. (Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson never stopped recording.) And of course young admirers such as Will Oldham were invited. Sounds like the king receiving guests and it is true. Having Johnny Cash sing a song of yours is of course like a musical medal of honour, which were received by Will Oldham, U2 (Why, I ask?), Soundgarden, Nick Cave and some others. Recording sessions and time-plans are strictly tailored to suit the man, not the youngest anymore and a little sick, Johnny Cash has to be careful with himself. I hear that Rubin shields him of at Cash’s farm, where a recording-studio has been built, as much as he can. Nevertheless Cash stills takes time to get up on a nearby stage a few times a month as a special guest with befriended acts – definitely a special treat to any unsuspecting guest.

He has now done four albums in connection with American and Rick Rubin. These are all great and timeless records. My other favourite of them is the “Storytellers”-CD where he plays with Willie Nelson and the two exchange what must have been a fabulous evening in front of a selected audience. But this first album on American stands taller than the rest, because you can hear Johnny Cash pure and clean, as if he was singing in your room. And the man shares his wisdom with you, a wisdom grown by experiences and nurtured by life. Just read his notes on the innersleeve and you will be left with the impression of a man, who has lived his life fully and is not yet sure, if he should fight on or give up on it and remain himself to memories, which is not a bad thing if you have memories like his. Please, give the man a few more years and a few more songs.