American Recordings

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
1994

Overview Edit

American Recordings is a Grammy Award-winning album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in April 1994 (see 1994 in music), the first album issued by American Recordings after its name change from Def American. In 2003, the album was ranked number 364 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and heavy metal than for country music. Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded the album in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. For years Cash was often at odds with his producers after he had discovered with his first producer, Sam Phillips, that his voice was better suited to a stripped-down musical style. Most famously he disagreed with Jack Clement over his sound, Clement having tried to give Cash's songs a "twangy" feel and to add strings and barbershop-quartet-style singers. His successful collaboration with Rick Rubin was in part due to Rubin seeking a minimalist sound for his songs.

The songs "Tennessee Stud" and "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" were recorded live at the Viper Room, a Sunset Strip, Los Angeles nightclub owned at the time by Johnny Depp. "The Beast in Me" was written and originally recorded by Cash's former stepson-in-law Nick Lowe.

The video for the first single, the traditional song "Delia's Gone," (directed by Anton Corbijn and featuring Kate Moss) was put into rotation on MTV, and even appeared on Beavis and Butt-head. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be Cash's finest album since the late 1960s, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as Tom Waits and Glenn Danzig (who penned a song called "Thirteen" specifically for Cash, in twenty minutes flat) helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received a Grammy for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recordings_(album). Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
unknown
Catalog number:
51011 2792-2
Release dates:
  • Nov 13 2007

Genres

Acoustic, Americana, Folk, Indie, Rock, Country, Alternative Country. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars The Guitar and The Voice - What Else Do You Need?
It was a completely unexpected move. In 1994, country music legend Johnny Cash agrees to cut an album produced by rap producer Rick Rubin for Rubin's American Recordings label. The result: The first of four priceless recordings that rival anything else from Cash's outstanding body of work.

The collection includes old songs, new songs, songs written by Cash, and songs written by others. Cash's music has always been marked by great storytelling and honesty, but this recording takes the Man in Blac…
Written by A. Wolverton
3 stars Not The Best For Me
I know I'll be buried under an avalanche for this but I much prefer some of his other efforts. Maybe I got a bad disc or it was recently remastered since the many positive comments were left, but there is a near distortion on many of the tracks (and its not my system, I've got more than one system and played thousands of cd's through them) that almost causes me to cringe on the vocal peaks.

Maybe the vinyl is much better as one suggested. Please don't take this as a JC bash. He's a legend. Its …
Written by Telecaster "MusicMan"

Track listing Edit

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Other versions Edit

American Recordings 13 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: American Recordings
catalog number: 51011 2792-2
release dates: 1994 in Europe, Feb 20 2006
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American Recordings 13 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: 1994 in United States
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American Recordings 13 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: Mar 5 2002
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