American IV: The Man Comes Around

by Johnny Cash

Overview

Johnny Cash's fourth project with producer Rick Rubin continues on the same path as many of their previous releases: Cash's warm and rumbling baritone over minimal production and gentle duets with some surprising guests. One of the things that sets American IV: The Man Comes Around apart from the others is Cash's song selections. The success he experienced with his previous interpretations of contemporary songwriters (Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage," Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat") is applied to this album with varying degrees of success. His throaty reading of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" easily fits into his "Man in Black" persona, and the spiritual conviction underlying Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" is certainly powerful. Unfortunately, the inclusion of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (featuring a lost-sounding Fiona Apple) and a passionless snooze through the Beatles' "In My Life" should have been so much stronger (given the subject matter of both songs and Cash's prolific life story). One of the reasons his previous covers were so successful is that in the past he had chosen some pretty obscure songs (Bonnie Prince Billy's "I See a Darkness" and Beck's "Rowboat," to name a couple) and reinterpreted them with his unique perspective and unmistakable voice. However, there is really no need to hear his versions of the Irish standard "Danny Boy" or the clunky rendition of Sting's "I Hung My Head," since something about them just doesn't fit -- either Cash wasn't entirely comfortable with the song or the performance was never fully realized. Luckily, the new songs Cash wrote for the album are pretty strong, and his cover of the standard "We'll Meet Again" is among the best versions of the song ever recorded. It is a relief to hear that, although Cash's voice is clearly older and not the booming powerhouse it was in the earlier Sun and Columbia days, he's still got some punch left in him, and the wisdom he's gained in his later life seeps through between the grooves, revealing a man who has lived through it all and lived to tell the tale. ~ Zac Johnson

Product Details

Release Date:	03/03/2014
Label:	American
UPC:	0602537596386
Rank:	4496

Tracks

Disc 1

1. The Man Comes Around
2. Hurt
3. Give My Love to Rose
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water
5. I Hung My Head
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7. Personal Jesus

Disc 2

8. In My Life
9. Sam Hall
10. Danny Boy
11. Desperado
12. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
13. Tear Stained Letter
14. Streets of Laredo
15. We'll Meet Again

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Johnny Cash   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Lead Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic)
Fiona Apple   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Don Henley   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Nick Cave   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Billy Preston   Guest Artist,Piano,Keyboards
John Frusciante   Guest Artist,Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic)
Terry Harrington   Clarinet
Jack Clement   Dobro
Smokey Hormel   Guitar,Slide Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic)
Jeff Hanna   Guitar (Acoustic)
Joey Waronker   Drums
Kerry Marx   Guitar (Acoustic)
Marty Stuart   Guitar (Acoustic)
Laura Cash   Fiddle
Randy Scruggs   Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic)
Mike Campbell   Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic)
David Ferguson   Ukulele
Thom Bresh   Guitar (Acoustic)
Benmont Tench   Organ,Piano,Harmonium,Keyboards,Mellotron,Wurlitzer,Pipe Organ,Vibraphone
Jeff Hannah   Guitar (Acoustic)
Roger Manning   Organ,Piano,Harmonium,Mellotron,Chamberlin,Tack Piano,Orchestra Bells
Whole Cash Gang   Vocals,Vocals (Background)
The While Cash Gang   Vocals

Technical Credits

Trent Reznor   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Paul McCartney   Composer
Paul Simon   Composer
Tex Ritter   Composer
Andrew Scheps   Engineer
Jimmy Tittle   Production Assistant
Jimmy Webb   Composer
Ewan MacColl   Composer
Don Henley   Composer
John Lennon   Composer
Martin Gore   Composer
Rick Rubin   Producer
Richard Thompson   Composer
Marty Stuart   Performer
Laura Cash   Production Assistant
Sting   Composer
David Ferguson   Mixing,Engineer
Hank Williams   Composer
Thom Russo   Engineer
Glenn Frey   Composer
John Carter Cash   Engineer,Producer,Associate Producer
Johnny Cash   Arranger,Composer,Adaptation
Marty Robbins   Composer
Vlado Meller   Mastering
Chuck Turner   Engineer
Christine Cano   Design,Art Direction
Martyn Atkins   Photography
Dwight Hume   Production Assistant
Lindsay Chase   Production Coordination
Hughie Charles   Composer
Frederick Edward Weatherly   Composer
Ross Parker   Composer