| American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash | |
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Reviewed by Kathy Coleman
After more than five decades of making tremendous music that can alternately touch, anger, inspire, and enlighten, Johnny Cash returns to the studio to present a new disc that is simply overwhelmingly full of heart and soul and pure emotion.
American IV: The Man Comes Around is the follow up to the Grammy-award-winning American III: Solitary Man of 2000. This disc is a delightfully eccentric collection of oddball covers and Cash originals which continues the Cash legacy with impressive style and grace. The cover art merely reads "CASH." And that is really all it needs to say. This disc may only appeal to hardcore Cash fans; but it doesn't matter, as it seems that at his age, Johnny Cash is making music he likes; it's not country, it's not rock, it's not folk, but it is all of those things and more. It's just Johnny Cash.
The title track, "The Man Comes Around," opens this disc with a tale of Death, the white horseman, a straightforward acoustic country song with Cash's still-powerful, if trembling, voice. He hasn't been untouched by time; but he is still Cash, and we are still in awe of him and his Heaven-sent voice. A simple acoustic guitar accompaniment is all that dresses that voice, and it is all Cash needs.
The surprises on this disc are Johnny's choices of covers. As with Solitary Man, he selects songs from every branch of music. From alt-rock sounds such as Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" to modern folk ballads such as the classic Simon & Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and ancient ones such as "Danny Boy" and "Streets of Laredo," Johnny travels across genres with extreme elegance. He also reaches into his own bag, re-doing his own beautiful "Give My Love To Rose" and the dark humor of "Sam Hall."
As strange as some of the song choices seem, they still all work for Cash. Johnny Cash can sing anything he wants; he's reached an age where it's hard to argue that fact, even when considering Sting's "I Hung My Head" and "Desperado" (with Don Henley).
Of all the songs on this album which send chills of delight up the spine, the one that seems to touch the deepest, the one that moved me to awed silence, was Johnny Cash's cover of The Beatles' "In My Life." This has always been a song of surprising depth and clarity, especially when one considers how young Lennon/McCartney were when they wrote it; here, sung by a man who has lived a long, hard, and amazing life, it is breathtakingly poignant. The song becomes everything it was meant to be in Cash's hands, touching the heart and the soul with every nuance of its deeper meaning.
Every song on this album is amazing. It is difficult to find all the proper words to describe its simplicity, its majesty, its sheer brilliance. I guess the best thing to say is just: CASH.
Song List:
- The Man Comes Around
- Hurt
- Give My Love To Rose
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- I Hung My Head
- The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
- Personal Jesus
- In My Life
- Sam Hall
- Danny Boy
- Desperado
- I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
- The Streets of Laredo
- Tear Stained Letter
- We'll Meet Again
Album cover, used with permission of American Recordings.
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