AMERICAN IV:THE (LP)

Personnel includes: Johnny Cash (vocals, guitar); Fiona Apple, Don Henley, Nick Cave (vocals); Smokey Hormel (acoustic guitar, slide guitar); Randy Scruggs, Jeff Hannah, Kerry Marx, Mike Campbell, Marty Stuart, John Frusciante, Thom Bresh (acoustic guitar); "Cowboy" Jack Clement (dobro); David Ferguson (ukelele); Laura Cash (fiddle); Terry Harrington (clarinet); Benmont Tench (piano, Wurlitzer piano, organ, harmonium, pipe organ, mellotron); Roger Manning Jr. (piano, harmonium, chamberlain, mellotron, orchestra bells); Billy Preston (piano); Joey Waronker (drums). Recorded at Cash Cabin, Nashville, Tennessee and Akademie Mathematique Of Philosphical Sound Research, Los Angeles, California. Includes liner notes by Johnny Cash. "Give My Love To Rose" won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. AMERICAN IV: THE MAN COMES AROUND was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals. When the first volume of Johnny Cash's AMERICAN series appeared in 1994, it would have been difficult to predict its critical and commercial success, much less the fact that an illness-beset Cash would be turning out a powerful fourth installment of the series eight years later. Like its three predecessors, AMERICAN IV is a home-recorded, bare-bones Rick Rubin production wherein Cash tackles old classics by other writers as well as more contemporary tunes by artists from the rock world, with a smattering of his own new compositions thrown in. It's also arguably the strongest since the first volume. Now that the novelty of hearing the Man in Black tackle tunes by the likes of Depeche Mode ("Personal Jesus") and Nine Inch Nails ("Hurt") has worn off, we can get past the gimmickry to fully appreciate the power of Cash's soul-baring interpretations. He brings an equal amount of gravitas to old country and folk tunes like "Streets of Laredo" and "Give My Love to Rose." To hear Cash's worn, husky, lived-in voice inhabit the world-weary narrative of the Beatles' "In My Life" and the graphic, almost spiritual romance of the Ewan MacColl-penned ballad "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is to be led directly to the heart of these songs' deepest meanings.