This was Johnny's 85th album and the third of Cash's six album series titled the 'American Recordings'. AMERICAN III:SOLITARY MAN was the last album he recorded in entirety before June passed and unsurprisingly it's less emotional a listen than the album that followed it. AMERICAN:III doesn't feature anything with the reflective power of his NIN cover 'Hurt' or his heartbreaking versions of 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' or The Beatles 'In My Life'. It does contain some of the best moments of this remarkable series of albums, and some of Cash's finest recordings, although for other reasons.
Like the other records in the series it is a collection of revisited Cash originals and cover versions suggested to him by producer Rick Rubin. Now, some of these seem a little obvious for the Cash treatment - U2's 'One' for example. Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down' and Neil Diamond's 'Solitary Man' similarly sound exactly as you'd expect them to. But there are also some exemplary left-field choices that perfectly fit with Cash's Man in Black persona and surpass the originals versions in drama and tone. Cash makes them his own, and then some.
First is Bonnie Prince Billy's 'I See A Darkness'. Here Cash duets with Billy aka Will Oldham. They sing like too old maudlin rascals reflecting on the good times "drinking" and "whoring" but also on their inner demons and dark hearts. Like 'Hurt' it is a masterful choice.
It's followed immediately by Nick Cave's 'The Mercy Seat'. Cash has sung about capital punishment from the perspective of the convicted many times, often flippantly. Here things are a little more serious. Nick Cave's evocative words are loaded with Christian symbolism, the title itself being reference to both the electric chair and the throne of God which the singer believes he shall soon be stood in front of. Cash said that he was drawn to the song after watching a documentary about death row. Inspired to cover the song by the thought that "If a man's been [on Death Row] 25 years, maybe we should consider whether or not he has become a good human being and do we still want to kill him." Nick Cave considers it a high point of his career to have been covered by Cash. It's certainly a high point for Johnny too.
After this dark middle the album mellows considerably with easy acoustic versions of Cash's songs 'Field of Diamonds In The Sky' (backing vocals here from June and Sheryl Crow), 'Before My Time' and 'Country Trash'.
Just as it began, the album ends with another solitary man, the traditional American folk song 'Wayfaring Stranger'.
III is an album of darkness and light, about fighting for life and facing death. About appreciating all that you have and all that is around you. Just as with the following American IV album, it's essential Cash.
'THE MERCY SEAT'
I SEE A DARKNESS
WAYFARING STRANGER
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