"The Only Thing That's Real"

"We were in the studio, getting ready to work — and I popped it in, by the end I was really on the verge of tears. I’m working with Zach de la Rocha, and I told him to take a look. At the end of it, there was just dead silence. There was, like, this moist clearing of our throats and then, "Uh, OK, let’s get some coffee."

- Trent Reznor

"Get Rhythm"

"September When It Comes..."

"A boy and his guitar..."

"Holding onto that chuckle..."

A terrific piece on Cash appeared in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times, by the great critic Ann Powers.

Quoting:

Holding onto that chuckle was a key part of the remarkable feat Cash and Rubin accomplished over the ensuing decade. Loving the work, Cash recorded all kinds of songs -- funny ones, familiar ones, some he'd recorded before and others he never would have heard if not for his hip younger friends. The material matters; it was a blessing that Rubin kept Cash away from the soft rock of contemporary Nashville, and occasionally, the hipster connection worked magic. But the greater value of the American Recordings emerges through Cash and Rubin's unflinching attention to the details of his slowly failing instrument.

Many older singers just sound bad because they're still trying to present themselves as totally masterful. Cash didn't do that. He let in the cracks and the shortness of breath and the flatness. That's when the chuckle comes in, often silent but always pushing against the inherent drama of the songs and the moment. "Oh, well," you can almost hear Cash say, "I'm still singing."

Read the whole thing. You won't be sorry.

"I Taught The Weeping Willow How To Cry..."

Dylan on Cash

"Johnny was and is the North Star; you could guide your ship by him. The greatest of the greats - then and now."

- Bob Dylan

Songs

"I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And Mother. And God."

- Johnny Cash

Johnny and June

Folsom Prison Blues

The Man In Black

Friday would have been Johnny Cash's 78th birthday, so just brace yourself for a healthy dollop of the man in black over the next 24 hours.

Ain't No Grave, Indeed

There’s no doubt about it, at least not in my mind – the collaboration between Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin is one of the great stories in the history of American music. Off the top of my head, I really can’t think of a parallel – a great artist in the twilight of his career, pretty much given up on by his record company, coupled with a producer who tells him “just play what you want, and we’ll see what happens.” Which leads to a 10-year partnership that results in four great albums, one great box set, a surge in popularity among all age groups, and, oh yeah – some of the best work of his long and storied career. As far as I know, it had never happened before, and we can only hope that someday it will happen again.

With the release of “American VI: Ain’t No Grave,” we can now add to that list, two worthy, posthumously released albums.

It’s not really fair to compare “Ain’t No Grave” to the albums that Cash and Rubin released before Johnny’s death in 2003. The box set, “Unearthed,” made clear that for every 14-16 songs released on each of the “American” albums, there were twice as many that, for one reason or another, didn’t quite make the cut. So we really have no way of knowing whether the songs on “Ain’t No Grave” would have made the cut or not. And after all, the album is barely 30 minutes long.

But in the end, none of that really matters. What matters is the chance, this one last time, to hear Johnny Cash singing songs that we haven’t heard him sing before – whether it’s an old traditional, an old Kris Kristofferson tune, a famous Hawaiian ballad, or the last original song that he wrote. We should feel lucky to have the opportunity, even as we feel sad that this will be the last one.