ARTIST: Johnny Cash
ALBUM: American VI
LABEL: American Recordings/Lost Highway
RELEASE DATE: February 23, 2010
“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash…..”
Photo by Martyn Atkins
Written by Jenny Frank
At first I was ecstatic about writing this review for American VI: Ain’t No Grave, Johnny Cash’s final (and 2nd post humous release thanks to the efforts of friend/Producer extraordinaire, Rick Rubin.) Ecstatic because before I could say, “Bobby McGee” my Mom had already exposed me to countless hours of music from the likes of Johnny Cash and his fellow Highwayman Kris Kristofferson. So I thought this review could be finished in a couple hours based on my familiarity with Johnny Cash’s music. After all what more can be said about a man who has spent his life defining so much of what American Music is? I revisited Johnny Cash’s original songs, moving on into the period marked with his1994 signing with American Records and the songs both Johnny Cash chose or those Rick Rubin suggested as cover songs for that 6 albums that fall under American Recordings I-VI. Why had these specific songs/ musicians/ songwriters/poets/storytellers been decided on? What was so incredibly important in these songs that Johnny Cash continued to work even after the sudden death of his wife/best friend/soulmate June Carter Cash in 2003? What had these songs inspired in him that allowed him to continue to record even with the debilitating pain he was plagued with due to his battled with MSA, a disease which ravaged his body with Parkinson-like symptoms?
American VI begins with low undeterminable noise behind an acoustic guitar. Impossible to tell for sure if it is wind, Death’s chains or a shallow, gasping breath whatever it is, it is gone as quickly: “There ain’t no grave that can hold my body down/THERE AIN’T NO GRAVE THAT CAN HOLD MY BODY DOWN/When I hear that trumpet sound I’m gonna rise right out of the ground/There ain’t no grave that can hold my body down.” Unmistakably Johnny Cash, his now ghostly voice makes even smallest hairs stand on end. Almost undetectable at first there is a slight difference in his voice–something quieter, layered deep underneath his trademark baritone that now also bears a certain fragility absent from his earlier songs. It is most noticeable on “I Corinthians 15:55,” which is the only original Johnny Cash song included on American VI. “Oh life you are a shining path/And hope springs eternal/Just over the rise/When I see My Redeemer beckoning me” the lines echo with a quivering reverberation trailing off into….
His life is filled with accomplishments, contradictions and controversy including the1968 Live from Folsom Prison and 1969 Live from San Quentin Prison recordings and although he never called a prison cell “home” (he was arrested several times). He was married and found true love (but not from the same woman). He drank heavily, and battled both alcohol and drug addiction. He knew God intimately and was a Biblical Scholar. He started (actually his truck) started a forest fire that burned 508 acres in California. He was arrested in Starkville, Mississippi for picking flowers, and now the occasion is marked by an annual flower-picking festival in his honor. His voice was used as a character in an episode of the The Simpson’s cartoon. He recorded many things including a spoken word of the King James’s New Testament Bible. Mostly though, Johnny Cash sang and played guitar like very few before or ever will again.
The most striking song on American VI is the cover of Hank Snow’s 1954 “I Don’t Hurt Anymore.” (Side-note: Hank Snow is credited as the first person to bring Elvis on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in 1954. He, along with Colonel Tom Parker became Elvis’ first Managers.)
While many critics and fans see Johnny Cash’s 2002 cover of the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt” as a kind of epitaph: It is not until we hear “I Don’t Hurt Anymore” that we fully understand that “Hurt” was not his probable chosen epitaph. Instead “Hurt” probably seems to more accurately represent his frustration towards illness, old age and Death. The new epitaph finds a triumphant Johnny Cash singing “It don’t hurt anymore/All my teardrops have dried/…../Just to think it could be/Time has opened the door/At last I am free/I don’t hurt anymore/…/It is wonderful/I don’t hurt anymore.” The final line grabs me in a way unlike any other Johnny Cash song has before. Maybe because it lacks the degree of conviction and sincerity present in all his other songs? No matter, it is a rare Johnny Cash moment where he shows a true fear towards Death and the unknown future ahead.
American VI: Ain’t No Grave is not an album I can review for you. I cannot advise you if it is good or bad. If you should run out to buy it. I cannot tell you if it deserves 1,2,3,4 or 5 stars. (Truthfully there are not enough stars in the sky.)
American VI: Ain’t No Grave IS Johnny Cash.
It is the voice of a man who understands how precious life is. It is the same voice who also accepts life’s inevitable end. He reminds us with these 10 songs that life is not defined by breaths but how people remember you and how you remember others. He gives us assurance that even in death we remain and that we have a voice that can never die for those who remember and love.
Johnny Cash knew what he wanted to record as the final song on his last album. Rick Rubin honored his wish with Track 10, “Aloha Oe.” A traditional Hawaiian folk song written by the Queen Lili’uokalani, Queen of Hawaii before it was annexed by the United States on July 4th, 1894. Queen Lili’uokalani was a woman who fought hard against this annexation and was even imprisoned for her deviance. In the same way the album starts with the ghostly entrance of “Ain’t No Grave” Johnny Cash now leaves with an eerie silence…..
“Aloha Oe” Johnny Cash, “until we meet again…….”.