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Johnny Cash American VI Aint No Grave(mp3 320kbs)ICM369
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Whatever Bob Dylan meant when he sang that death is not the end,
this — Johnny Cashs second posthumous studio album — probably
wasn’t it.
Before his death in 2003 Cash seemed to spend the best part of a
decade contemplating his passing in song.
American I-IV, the predominantly covers-based series of albums that
he recorded under the aegis of the producer Rick Rubin from 1994,
depicted an artist not so much willing to stare his Maker in the
face, as goading Him into delivering him from his Earthly container.
Even before the Oscar-winning film I Walk the Line depicted him as
an alt-country Fonz for the new generation of fans, Cashs reputation
— his friendship with Dylan, his prison shows, his left-leaning
politics, the drug addiction and the fact that many people thought
he actually did shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die — meant
that Rubin’s rebranding of the singer as a musical outlaw with one
more battle to fight was an irresistible sell.
Cash was an honorary rock star, so Rubins idea of swapping the boom-
chicka-boom freight train rattle of his best-known tunes with darker
songs from rocks corpus made a perverse sort of sense.
Nine Inch Nails Hurt, Depeche Modes Personal Jesus, Nick Caves The
Mercy Seat — Cash turned them all into the Gothic mutterings of a
man who has finally found a senseof belonging in St Peter’s candlelit
anteroom.
It was perhaps naïve of us to imagine that the series would expire
with Cash himself. on the face of it, American VI smacks of the
posthumous exploitation that hangs over the continuing output of
Tupac Shakur and Eva Cassidy.
Perhaps pre-empting similar criticism, Rubin claims that Cash set
the pace of his output in the final two years of his life.
Sometimes he felt well enough to record; sometimeshe could not.
Rubins job was to have musicians ready to spring into action on the
good days.
On the sixth instalment in the American series, outre covers take a
back seat. “There aint no grave that can hold my body down,” he sings
on the title track, but — placed at the top of the album — thisnear-
delirious delivery from Cash is something of a red herring.
Elsewhere, he sounds peaceably reconciled to the ramifications of his
own frailty. “Theres a train/ Thats heading straight/ To Heavens gate,”
he sings on a sparsely ornamented version of Sheryl Crows Redemption
Day, switching between images of human conflict and his own unshakeable
faith.
Seemingly sung verbatim from his Bible, First Corinthians sees Cash
singing, “O death, where is thy sting,” over a back-porch waltz-time
shuffle.
Cash may have once been welcoming of Rubins more unusual song choices
on Previous albums, but his most soulful performances on American VI
are invested in Nashville standards.
Kris Kristoffersons For the Good Times, named Song of the Year in 1970
by the Academy of Country Music, should have long since emptied itself
of the power to move, but Cashs elementary delight in one of the genres
set texts takes on an eye-misting beauty. In the circumstances, Satisfied
Mind — a song that has passed through Porter Wagoner, Bob Dylan and Jeff
Buckley before him — is no less of a shoo-in.
It would be nice to think that the curators of his legend will see fit to
shut the book here, in the accompanying notes, Rubin echoes the point,
confirming that this is where his involvement with the American series ends.
Others may beg to differ, of course. This year (on a different label),
we have already had Johnny Cash Remixed — a self-explanatory “project”
starring Snoop Dogg and Pete Rock that Cashs son claims his dad “would have
loved”.
But anyone else seeking a full stop to the longest goodbye in music history
is better advised to find it at the end of American VI.
To hear Cash serenely intoning “Until we meet again” on Aloha Oe amounts to
more than closure. Indeed, no man ever sounded so delighted to be to be
serenading his own wake.
In honor of Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday, the release of this album, Cashs
life, and all he stood for as a voice for those in need, Lost Highway Records
is dedicating February 26th as “Wear Black For Johnny” Day. On the labels
website are details about the commemorative day, the new album, a stream of
the title track, and the lyrics to Cashs poignant classic “Man In Black” —
words that remain as relevant today as when Cash first wrote them.
A man, a songwriter, a legend; he is truly missed.
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1. Aint No Grave
2. Redemption Day
3. For The Good Times
4. I Corinthians 15:55
5. Can't Help But Wonder Where Im Bound
6. Satisfied Mind
7. I Dont Hurt Anymore
8. Cool Water
9. Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
10. Aloha Oe
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Format : MPEG Audio
File size : 6.62 MiB
Duration : 2mn 53s
Overall bit rate : 320 Kbps
Album : American VI: Ain't No Grave
Track name : Ain't No Grave
Track name/Position : 1
Performer : Johnny Cash
Recorded date : 2010
Writing library : FRAY / LAME3.92
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Format_Settings_Mode : Joint stereo
Duration : 2mn 53s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 320 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 6.61 MiB (100%)
Writing library : LAME3.92
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Mp3
Ripped:320
Enjoy:D
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