American 3: Solitary Man (Reis)

Not being an expert on country music or on Johnny Cash, I must say this album is moving and very very suggestive; with simple but clever arrangements, beautiful songs and amazing vocal...
Obviously more than merely touched by age and various ailments, mr. Johnny Cash performes with great passion and suggests wisdom no young singer can convey (or even come close to conveying)...

I like it very much!

Who would imagine that an ageing Johnny Cash could reach out and cover dark and strange songs like these? OK, it's uneven, with one or two cuts actually sub-par, but "I see a darkness" is perfect, "One"--who could believe anyone could turn this into such a great song? And then, there is the utterly savage version of "Mercy Seat." Far better than any Nick Cave version, Johnny does it straight and without the histrionics. It is totally gripping--I was never an anti-death penalty person, or even particularly anti-death, but this song just blows you away. It's not the killing part that is so powerful, it's the mere fact of death itself, and the consciousness of walking to that chair like a mouse gingerly pushing down the bar on a trap while knowing what is about to happen....

And yet the song is unsentimental. The most important part, and the real hook, is the protagonist going from his "tough guy" persona in which he sticks by his story, damn your eyes, to, only at the...Read more

This is for the most part, a slower more mellow side of Johnny Cash. It is enjoyable even with all of it's sadness and gloomy topics. Whatever songs Johnny Cash covers magically seem to be his own, and everyone of them I've heard I like better than the original. On this album he covers, "I won't Back Down," a song by Tom Petty. "One" was originally a U2 song that Cash really brings to life even though at this point, he wasn't full of too much life. This, as well as "Solitary Man", "Nobody", "I See a Darkness", "The Mercy Seat", "Country Trash", "I'm Leaving Now", and "Wayfaring Stranger", are my favorite tracks on the album, and basically that is almost all of the songs. Some of my least favorites are so because of how slow they are. "Mary of the Wild Moor," is extremely depressing and makes me really envision a backwoods family.

As far as how inspiring this album is, I think there are songs on here I can really relate to such as, "Nobody" (a song about people not...Read more