Johnny Cash: American III: Solitary Man (UK import) [AMERICAN RECORDINGS]

Why you'll love it

This UK import is pressed on 180g vinyl. Rick Rubin produced the third album in Cash's American series, which reached No. 11 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and drew an average Metacritic score of 80.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• UK import

About the album

By 2000, illness had forced Johnny Cash to cut back his touring, and he answered by going back into the studio and singing straight at it. The opening "I Won't Back Down" sets the tone, with Tom Petty himself adding vocals and organ. He also revisits three songs he had cut before, "Field Of Diamonds," "Country Trash" and "I'm Leavin' Now," and gives them new weight.

Rubin and associate producer John Carter Cash keep the arrangements spare, with Benmont Tench's keys, Marty Stuart, Norman Blake and Mike Campbell on guitars and Laura Cash on fiddle. Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man" becomes a statement of intent, U2's "One" turns into a hymn, Will Oldham sings with him on "I See A Darkness," and the Chicago Sun-Times called "The Mercy Seat" the series' single best performance. Sheryl Crow and June Carter Cash join on "Field Of Diamonds," and Merle Haggard shares "I'm Leavin' Now."

It was the penultimate studio album to come out in his lifetime. Entertainment Weekly gave it an A and called it a dark angel beauty of an album. Not bad for a chap who'd already made 65 others.

Also at Kops: more Johnny Cash on vinyl · browse Country

Tracklist

Listen

On American Recordings, a reissue of the 2000 album.