I usually don’t care when other people think differently from me. But you are so casually dismissive of Johnny Cash’s American recordings that I think an objection needs to be raised. You remind me of people who thought Billie Holliday’s later recordings were only evidence of tragic decline and waste. I wish I could make you hear Cash’s last recordings as I do, and as the Grammy givers did–several times. All I can do is to beg you to give these treasures a second try. Start with “Keep the Lower Lights Burning” on “Unearthed.” It is, to my ears, one of the greatest glories of Cash’s long career. But it keeps good and crowded company in all those American albums.

It’s “When I Stop Dreaming,” as in the future tense (or whatever), as in, “that’s when I’ll stop loving you.” Interesting to hear a differing opinion on the American body of work–something to think about.

thanks for that. I absolutely love the Louvin Brothers and think that perhaps the faces of Charlie and Ira should be added with Willie, Johnny and the rest to the country Mt. Rushmore. We’ve actually done a couple of postings on the Louvins at the driftwood singers site, which might be of interest to fans.

http://driftwoodsingers.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_driftwoodsingers_archive.html

Hey, awesome blog.

I didn’t mean that i didn’t like the American recordings because Cash’s voice was tired, but that the song choices (i won’t back down, bridge over trouble water) and ones that border on self parody (delia’s gone, personal jesus). i mean they aren’t as bad as say Neil Diamond’s 12 songs or anything. but they feel really limp and really could be weeded down to an ep/album.

I agree with Peter on this one. The choice of songs on ‘American Recordings’ is very poor. Even Cash’s great voice can’t personalise the songs sufficiently to make them anything other than slightly-out-of-the-ordinary covers. It’s the tone and timbre of the unique voice which holds interest, not the songs thenselves. Including more ‘roots’ material [such as 'When I Stop Dreaming'] could have resulted in a great legacy recording.