American III: Solitary Man

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Music reviews of American III: Solitary Man

Music Review: Could Have Been Great
Rating: 4 Stars

I, perhaps like most other Cash fans, awaited this release with great anxiety, and while the album turned out to be a good one, I cannot say that I am entirely satisfied this time around.

One reviewer noted that Cash's voice is a bit thin throughout Solitary Man, and it's true. Whereas Cash blew the heck out of his vocal chords on Unchained's "Spiritual," perhaps the best ballad of his nearly 50-year career, Cash's snarling, robust barritone just never quite realizes itself here.

This is most obvious on his blunted efforts to hit the high notes on "Lucky Old Sun." It doesn't just sound like he has aged, we all do. And it doesn't just sound bad, it sounds like Cash's illness in recent years has taken more out of him than he cares to admit. Whiel recording another album in the midst of that illness seems ambitious, it surely does nothing to hide the truth. if anything, a listen to Solitary man confirms the press coverage that Cash habitually refutes.

The other noteable mishap on Solitary man is the sparse production. Rubin's stripped-bare production on the strictly acoustic 1994 American Recordings seemed entirely appropriate, but the rocking 1996 follow-up foreshadowed even greater musical horizons. Not so here. While the covers of petty's "I Won't Back Down" and Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man" are excellent folk renditions, they just beg fore a fuller soundscape than Rubin allows. The pianos, organs and fiddles chiming in on songs like Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat" and the absolutely devastating "Wayfaring Stranger" are delicious, but only serve to highlight the missed opportunities on the spate of raw tracks that dominates the album.

Besides the aboved mentioned folk tunes, Cash's cover of U2's superb ballad, "One" is great, but the adventure ride Rubin took with Tom petty and Mike Campbell on 1996's Unchained is unfortunately AWOL throughout Solitary Man.

Nonetheless, we should probably be counting our lucky stars for another release from the man in black. The press wastes no time in painting Johnny Cash's health condition every shade of bleak, and it really sounded like Cash's career had come to a halt. Solitary Man might be a good album of as much worth as its predecessors, but I would not go so far as to label it an obligatory purchase.

Description of American III: Solitary Man

Country CDs

• Music > Styles
• Folk
• Pop