Part of one of my favourite "series" of albums ever. The Man In Black produced by hip-hop legend Rick Rubin. What a combination.
I have always liked Johnny Cash, but along with a lot of musicians who emerged when he did, by the time I first became aware of them it was probably the 1970's and some of these guys were starting to get into a very MOR kinda style. Playing Vegas, national US TV specials etc. If they were English they would probably have been doing the musical spot on The Two Ronnies and gigging round the chicken-in-a-basket circuit. That kinda thing. And Johnny Cash is no Barbara Dixon.
So by whatever amazing set of circumstances, in the mid-90's JC and RR teamed up to make what became known as the American Recordings. A bunch of albums predominantly featuring covers of a very diverse and wide-ranging bunch of songs, recorded in a very un-Vegas way. Mostly acoustic guitars. Girls (the band, not the gender), take note.
By the time they got to A Hundred Highways in 2003 (released in 2006), our Johnny's health was deteriorating markedly. His voice is shaky, its power and verve as heard on the classics of the 50's & 60's and those wonderful prison albums, is reduced to that of a frail old man. But my God it is more affecting than any voice you will ever hear.
Some kind of a wonderful connection was made when I first heard his version on here of Rod Mckuen's Love's Been Good To Me. Just a few years earlier I had seen my musical hero Edwyn Collins sing the same song at a little pub gig in the Scottish Highlands. He mentioned that Roddy Frame had taught him it. It is difficult to put into words what connections like that do to you, but it involves backbones quivering that's for sure.
I have been a rover
I have walked alone
Hiked a hundred highways
Never found a home
A Hundred Highways
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