American Recordings (album)

Infobox Album
Name = American Recordings
Type = Studio album
Artist = Johnny Cash

Released = 26 April 1994
Recorded = May 17 1993 – December 7 1993
Length = 42:45
Genre = Country
Label = American/Sony
Producer = Rick Rubin
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:z85k8qnbbtq4 link]
*"Rolling Stone" (favorable) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/johnnycash/albums/album/290462/review/6210482/american_recordings link]
Chronology = Johnny Cash
Last album = "Wanted Man"
(1994)
This album = "American Recordings"
(1994)
Next album = "The Road Goes on Forever"
(1995)
Misc = Extra chronology 2
Artist = American series
Type = Studio album
Last album =
This album = "American Recordings"
(1994)
Next album = "Unchained"
(1996)

"American Recordings" is a Grammy Award-winning album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in April 1994 (see 1994 in music), the first album issued by American Recordings after its name change from Def American. RS500|364

Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and heavy metal 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 Tom Waits and Glenn Danzig (who penned a song called "Thirteen" specifically for Cash, in twenty minutes flat) helped to bring him a new audience. "American Recordings" received a Grammy for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards.__NOTOC__

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
#:Written by Danzig for Cash. Later recorded by Danzig for "Danzig " (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 by Waits on his 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)

Personnel

*Rick Rubin - Producer
*Johnny Cash - Guitar, Vocals, Main Performer, Liner Notes
*Jim Scott - Mixing, Mixing Engineer
*David Ferguson - Engineer
*Stephen Marcussen - Mastering
*Christine Cano - Design
*Martyn Atkins - Art Direction, Photography

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Awards

*Grammy Awards of 1995::Best Contemporary Folk Album

External links

* [http://www.lpdiscography.com/c/Cash/cash2.htm The LP Discography: Johnny Cash listing]
* [http://www.futhermocker.dk/hvorfor/php/interview.php?folder=danzig_1 Danish Interview with Glenn Danzig where he tells that he wrote Thirteen in 20 minutes.]