In 1993 Johnny 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. Rubin had seen Cash perform at Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert in late 1992, and felt Cash was still a vital artist who had been unfairly written off by the music industry. Suffering from health problems, and recovering from a relapse of his drug addiction, Cash was initially sceptical, but the two men soon bonded, particularly when Rubin promised Cash a high level of creative control. Cash decided to record the first solo album of his career without any accompanying musicians, and so under Rubin's supervision he recorded most of the album in his own Tennessee cabin or Rubin's home in Los Angeles, accompanied only by his guitar, which was a return to his earliest recording style. 'The Beast In Me' was written and originally recorded by Cash's former stepson-in-law Nick Lowe, and Rubin commissioned new songs from several musicians, two of which ended up on 'American Recordings', including Glen Danzig's 'Thirteen'. 'American Recordings' received nearly universal acclaim from critics, with a rave review in Rolling Stone hailing it as one of Cash's greatest albums, because of his self-possessed, "biblically intense" take on traditional folk songs, and Rubin's no-frills production. In fact Cash had recorded many other songs in that fruitful period of playing for Rubin, and it wasn't long before outtakes started to surface, with a number of them being compiled on the 'American Outtakes' album in 1999, which Paul posted on his site back in 2019, but more surfaced later and the second volume was much harder to find. In fact most of these songs finally appeared on the 'Unearthed' box set in 2003, but for this post I'm using the original bootleg versions for most of the recordings, although the difference is probably minimal. It's the perfect accompaniment to 'American Outtakes', as we now have just about all the songs recorded in 1993, from which the 'American Recordings' track list was selected.
Track listing
01 Long Black Veil
02 Just The Other Side Of Nowhere
03 The Fourth Man
04 Waiting For A Train
05 Flesh And Blood
06 If I Give My Soul
07 Understand Your Man
08 The Caretaker
09 Banks Of The Ohio (with June Carter)
10 Breaking Bread
11 Casey's Last Ride
12 As Long As The Grass Shall Grow (with June Carter)
13 No Earthly Good
14 Two Timin' Woman
