Unchained (Reis)

Nashville is cruel to its veteran performers, but they have found a way to fight back. When Johnny's career as a recording artist seemed finished, he found a new producer, Rick Rubin, and together they have gone from strength to strength. They recorded four albums together and the last one, recorded only a few months before his death, became Johnny's first gold album in 23 years. The recipe for success is simple - go right back to Johnny's roots in the fifties, when his sound was simple and uncluttered, and don't worry about the radio stations that are obsessed with listeners in their twenties and thirties. If the music strikes the right chord, those people will buy it anyway.

This was the second album Johnny and Rick recorded together and it contains many of the elements you expect from them. Tom Petty and his band provided the musical backing - and they certainly did a good job.

There are some stunning covers including Sea of heartbreak (Don Gibson), Rusty...Read more

Before the marginally talented Garth Brooks became a boy wonder who could do no wrong, Johnny Cash ruled (his early 70s variety show was a top ten television hit). Fortunately or unfortunately, Cash doesn't look good in a tight pair of jeans, which is why he hasn't been on the radio ever since they dropped the "and Western" from Country and Country artists started writing pop songs and began hiring guitar players from washed up 80s metal acts. As a result, Cash has become an ironic alternative icon. Well, thank god for tight jeans and multinational, multibillion dollar music peddlers.

This man is brilliant. This record is brilliant. No other country and western artist of his generation would have gone to see Black Sabbath (with the original lineup) and later describe it as "the most amazing concert" he had ever been to. Remember that Cash was covering Bob Dylan songs back when The Byrds were being panned by the critics and booed out of Nashville for their...Read more

"Unchained" is one of the best albums I've ever heard, and I personally own well over three hundred albums and listened to countless others. My private collection includes music from many genres, from gospel to gangsta rap to hair metal, yet few of them match the quality of music and the amount of emotion contained on "Unchained" and all of Cash's other recordings for the American label.

I don't want to come across as an eager fan of Cash, because other than his "Highwayman" collaboration with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, I've never listened to a lot of his music or owned any of his albums. I always knew he was the man in black, but now I know why. His voice isn't the greatest, but it captures pain, pleasure, power, and weakness perfectly. He sounds like a man that's been through hell and back, and wouldn't mind another trip through if given the chance.

Just look at the lineup of artists who back him up here: Tom Petty and the...Read more