Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave
Rating
RIYL
Willie NelsonBright Eyes
William Elliot Whitmore
Release Date
02/23/2010
Label
American RecordingsTracklist
1. "Ain't No Grave (Gonna Hold This Body Down)"2. "Redemption Day"
3. "For the Good Times"
4. "First Corinthians, 15:55"
5. "Where I'm Bound"
6. "A Satisfied Mind"
7. "I Don't Hurt Anymore"
8. "Cool Water”
9. "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”
10. Aloha Oe
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There is no other way to put this: Johnny Cash is an American treasure. His career spanned five decades (and counting). He wrote numerous hits and helped make rock and roll a viable art form. After a few tumultuous decades which caused him to be vacant from the music scene, his American Recording sessions from the mid 90s thrust him back into the limelight, making him important again to even the most cynical listeners. While his old age and conflict-ridden life made it so that his death in 2003 wasn’t a sudden shock, America had clearly lost one of its elder statesmen. His first posthumous album American V: A Hundred Highways received both critical and commercial success when it was released in 2006. His new album American VI: Ain’t No Grave was recorded at the same session as American V and gives us a brilliant insight into the mind of a giant at the twilight of his life.
Over the years, Johnny Cash’s voice has grown qualities that are near indescribable. Some of the vigor of his youth might be gone, but his voice has taken on the tone of a weary prophet that can’t help but make the listener believe and feel every word he says. The title track is clearly the strongest song on the album, and a perfect opener. Beginning with an ominous guitar and some menacing ambient sounds, the man in black’s wavering baritone rolls in declaring, “Ain’t no grave can hold my body down.” Soon, clanking chains come in as percussion, giving off an eerie feeling of a hulking monster creeping from the grave. Cash’s cover of Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day” lets the Man in Black flex his political muscle, asking, “Was there no oil to excavate?” over descriptions of war and apocalypse. The lushness of the arrangements in songs like “I Don’t Hurt Anymore” and the dreamy “Last Night” show the great lengths that producer Rick Rubin goes to to compliment Cash’s typically restrained and simple methods. “Aloha Oe” is a perfect and bittersweet ending to an album (and a tremendous) recording career. But the feelings of sadness and melancholy fade away as Cash sings, “Farewell to thee…until we meet again,” with a sense of readiness and acceptance of death.
But as iconic and worthy-of-worship Johnny Cash is, sadly, American VI isn’t all roses. After listening to the entire album, the most noticeable thing lacking is Cash’s rebellious, outlaw flair. While there are tinges of defiance on “Ain’t No Grave”, the rest of the album is slow and much of it sounds even lullaby-ish. Certainly his age at this recording session dictates some of the slower pace and missing intensity, but it is disappointing to barely see even a trace of the Johnny Cash who wrote “Cocaine Blues” and who claimed to have, “Shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” The song choices also leave something to be desired. While tunes like “For the Good Times” are pretty, it lacks any emphasis or chutzpah. Lastly, the sole Cash-penned song on the album, “I Corinthians 15:55,” is the weakest of the bunch. The song rambles along with a weak melody, and is only saved by the lush studio magic being played in the background.
Even with these faults, the gnarled experience that colors Johnny Cash’s voice makes this an album worth devoting time to. Even though his body died years ago, his music lives on, inspiring us to dream, to pay attention to life, and to give a defiant eye to anyone or anything that is telling us what to do. The man who wrote American VI: Ain’t No Grave will be remembered throughout the ages whenever someone is living the consequences of a hard life, going through a rough end of a relationship, or running from the law. Johnny Cash truly explained it best when he says that “there ain’t no grave” that could keep his tremendous legacy down, and American VI is a fitting and beautiful end to his recording career.
--Stephen Harris
Comments
San Jose, CA
So this is an album of songs he wrote but never made public?
last.fm/user/thetsaiguy
Minnesota
If you read the review, you'll see that Cash only wrote one of the songs on the album.
Find me EVERYWHERE:
San Jose, CA
Oh I see. This should be interesting.
last.fm/user/thetsaiguy
San Diego, CA
The cover art is fucking awesome. I'm a bit skeptical, though, because I wasn't huge on American V. That said, it is Johnny Cash and I will definitely give this a listen.
Too old to bother, too young to give a shit.
West Haven, CT
Half a star.
The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.
San Diego, CA
Why?
Too old to bother, too young to give a shit.
West Haven, CT
He's not so good. Pretty far from relevant to me. Sort of can't stand the sound of him.
The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.
San Diego, CA
I was just wonderin
Too old to bother, too young to give a shit.
Washington, DC
That's weird, because his voice is comforting to me - kind of like a grandfather.
"Standing still is where we've gone wrong" - The dingees
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