American III: Solitary Man

Performer: Johnny Cash
Artist: Tom Petty; Randy Scruggs; Sheryl Crow; Norman Blake; Merle Haggard; Marty Stewart; Will Oldham
Engineer: David Ferguson
Producer: Rick Rubin
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard (vocals, guitar); Sheryl Crow (vocals, accordion); Tom Petty (vocals, organ); Will Oldham, June Carter Cash (vocals); Norman Blake, Mike Campbell, Larry Perkins, Randy Scruggs, Marty Stuart (guitar); Laura Cash (fiddle); Benmont Tench (piano, harmonium, organ). Recorded at The Cash Cabin Studio, Hendersonville, Tennessee and The Akademie Mathematique Of Philosophical Sound Research, Los Angeles, California. Includes liner notes by Johnny Cash. "Solitary Man" won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. AMERICAN III was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. The Man In Black shows hints of gray on American III: Solitary Man, his first studio album since being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1997. While the inevitability of aging has been the downfall of many of his contemporaries, ending usually in dismissal and often in death, Johnny Cash's dark convictions and powerful presence have gone from rough hardwood to solid stone. The stark beauty of his 1994 release American Recordings and the warm, friendly collaborations on 1996's Unchained combine on this album to create two distinct moods: one of living room jam sessions with invited friends, and another of stark solo (and near-solo) songs highlighting Cash's years and stories. Like his two previous studio albums, Solitary Man is sparsely produced by Rick Rubin, and continues the themes of love, faith, and loneliness that their previous collaborations have chillingly embraced. Partnering once again with Tom Petty, the two join together on Petty's own "I Won't Back Down" and the Neil Diamond-penned title track. Cash also lays his lonesome hands on U2's "One" and reunites with fellow outlaw Merle Haggard on the stubborn "I'm Leavin' Now," which could serve as the soundtrack for the notorious photo of Cash's sneering middle finger published in Billboard after his Grammy award. These duets and well-known covers show an inviting side of Johnny Cash. But the real highlights of the album are those reminiscent of his American Recordings songs; they feature just the man and his guitar, with nothing else to clutter the story. The creaks and despair of the vaudeville song "Nobody" tell of a man who has become hardened by his solitude, while the Palace hymn "I See a Darkness" soars with the passion of a thousand gospel choirs, even though there are only two men singing. In the liner notes, Cash writes: "The song is the thing that matters. Before I can record, I have to hear it, sing it, and know that I can make it feel like my own, or it won't work. I worked on these songs until I felt like they were my own." Although at times it is difficult to hear past Tom Petty's growl or Sheryl Crow's young harmonies in the more popular songs he covers, the obscure prison songs and country ballads he has chosen to interpret sound as honest and heartfelt as his own compositions. At age 68, his warm baritone may waver but his passion never does. ~ Zac Johnson Johnny Cash went through a lot in the late 1990s and the year 2000: a debilitating nerve disorder put the brakes on his live performances and touring, yet with AMERICAN III: SOLITARY MAN, his spirit and abilities remain undiminished. His voice has taken on a slightly more gentle and reflective quality, and his association with producer Rick Rubin has afforded him the opportunity to choose, and write, songs that are worthy of him. The Neil Diamond '60s pop hit "Solitary Man" is given an acoustic, spare reading, yet one can sense the demons of loneliness and frustration behind Cash's stoic delivery. Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat" is an eerie, obsessive litany of the first-person musings and observations of an innocent man's time of execution. The Cash originals, like the proud yet wryly sarcastic "Country Trash" and devotional love song "Before My Time," let some light in. The overall sound of AMERICAN III: SOLITARY MAN is predominantly acoustic and intimate, with guitar, fiddle, piano, organ, and harmonium; guest stars Merle Haggard, Sheryl Crow, Tom Petty, and Norman Blake sound right at home with the Man In Black.

Entertainment Weekly (12/29/00, p.140) - Ranked #8 in EW's Top 10 Albums of 2000 - "...These songs have rarely sounded so authentic, thanks to arrangements that are spare but never colorless and a voice that;s deep in more ways than one." Q (1/01, p.91) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000". Q (12/00, pp.118-9) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A regal comeback. It's a mostly acoustic affair...featuring unlikely covers....as resonant and dignified a covers album as you'll ever hear." CMJ (1/08/01, p.46) - Included in CMJ's "Year's Best Triple A Albums" from 2000. CMJ (10/16/00, p.26) - "...Pure goosebump material....[His] voice is commanding and cavernous in ever more tangible ways..." No Depression (1-2/01, pp.82-4) - "...It's a powerful disc....the key to its impact is in the reimagination [of songs] to make them [his]..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.64) - Ranked #17 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "Makes rock songs sound like something as old as the hills." Mojo (Publisher) (11/00, p.102) - "...The choice is igenious, their themes of survival, toughness, self-destructyion, sin, redemption and love adding up to an autobiography....his voice is sober, honest and defiant..." NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.78) - Ranked #32 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". NME (Magazine) (10/21/00, p.43) - 9 out of 10 - "...What is remarkable about this is its punishing intensity....stripped down, vivid and pure, emotionally naked stuff from a 68-year-old man who just 12 months ago was very seriously ill..."

Johnny Cash was part rockabilly rebel, part campfire storyteller, part outlaw in black. Cash made country and rockabilly history on the Sun label in the 1950s. During the '60s, the ruggedly charismatic Cash rose to superstardom, ending the decade with both his marriage to June Carter and his own television show. In the '90s, Cash began his highly successful and acclaimed AMERICAN RECORDINGS series, reaching a new audience with an amazingly diverse set of songs, ranging from traditional tunes to alternative rock covers. With his lean, angular sound and hearty, passionate baritone, Cash forged one of the most unique styles in all of popular music, one that delved into gospel, folk, and rock, but also remained the essence of country music. Four months after his wife died, Johnny Cash passed away on September 12, 2003. And in 2005, the Oscar-nominated biopic WALK THE LINE brought Cash's music and legend to his largest audience yet.

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