American III: Solitary Man | 
| Artist: Johnny Cash
Label: Lost Highway
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy Used: $3.86
You Save: $15.12 (80%)
New (7) Used (17) from $3.86
Rating:  126 reviews
Sales Rank: 67943
Format: Original Recording Reissued
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
UPC: 731458679226
EAN: 0731458679226
ASIN: B000062X9B
Release Date: March 5, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | I Won't Back Down | | • | Solitary Man | | • | That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) | | • | One | | • | Nobody | | • | I See A Darkness | | • | The Mercy Seat | | • | Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone) | | • | Field Of Diamonds | | • | Before My Time | | • | Country Trash | | • | Mary Of The Wild Moor | | • | I'm Leavin' Now | | • | Wayfaring Stranger |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com's Best of 2000
The simple truth is that Johnny Cash could read the phone book and make it compelling. At times this set sounds like a deathbed recitation rather than a collection of songs, but the man's aura and mystique carry the day. Atop Rick Rubin's spare arrangements, Cash makes every song he interprets his own. --Marc Greilsamer
Amazon.com
For younger generations of musicians, having their song cut by Johnny Cash must be a little like scaling the Washington Monument. On his third album for producer Rick Rubin's American label, Cash makes Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" sound like a companion classic to "I Walk the Line." He transforms U2's "One" into a sturdy testament of plainspoken faith, while he plumbs the netherworld of Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat" and Will Oldham's "I See a Darkness." Amid more familiar fare (including Neil Diamond's title track), the album's sing-along standout is the deadpan, down-and-out, talking blues of "Nobody." Cash's recent originals have the age-old purity of Appalachian music, while the traditional closing of "Wayfaring Stranger" offers bittersweet benediction. Merle Haggard, Sheryl Crow, and June Carter Cash provide vocal cameos. --Don McLeese
Album Description
UK only 180 gram vinyl pressing. For younger generations of musicians, having their song cut by Johnny Cash must be a little like scaling the Washington Monument. On his third album for producer Rick Rubin's American label, Cash makes Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down sound like a companion classic to 'I Walk the Line'. He transforms U2's 'One' into a sturdy testament of plainspoken faith, while he plumbs the netherworld of Nick Cave's 'The Mercy Seat' and Will Oldham's 'I See a Darkness'. Amid more familiar fare (including Neil Diamond's title track), the album's sing-along standout is the deadpan, down-and-out, talking blues of 'Nobody'. Cash's recent originals have the age-old purity of Appalachian music, while the traditional closing of 'Wayfaring Stranger' offers bittersweet benediction. Merle Haggard, Sheryl Crow, and June Carter Cash provide vocal cameos. Rhino UK. 2006.
Album Details
Limited Edition. Includes a One Hour Columbia Radio Hour Interview with Tim Robins. Tom Petty Joins the Man in Black on Petty's Own 'i Won't Back Down' and the Neil Diamond Penned Title Track. Fellow Outlaw Merle Haggard also Lends a Hand on the Stubborn'i'm Leaving Now.'
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| Customer Reviews: Read 121 more reviews...
 Would You Lay With Me In A Field Of Stone? October 19, 2000
Jason Stein (Chula Vista, CA United States)
75 out of 82 found this review helpful
There's something irresistable about an old, wise rebel singing songs of despair and melancholy. Johnny Cash has carved out this niche for over 45 years. He's walked the line and gone down in a burning ring of fire. He's surpassed illness and critics. "American III: Solitary Man" follows "American Recordings" (1994) and "Unchained" (1996) as Cash's third cd produced by Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys et al.) Cash shines on remakes like Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man", U2's "One", Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat". When Cash is dark, he's very dark like the lyrics in "I See A Darkness". He can turn on a dime and produce sad, painful comedy like "Nobody" and "Country Trash". He never loses the heart and soul of country/folk playing and singing. At 68, Cash is the oldest, coolest artist in my collection, and I look forward to each of his recordings because it seems like he always has some new way of seeing life and relationships. Some artists have nothing to say or make a few cds and then have nothing to say, but Johnny Cash continues to show the wisdom of age and experience and its value in our lives. I don't like country music much, but I sure do dig Johnny Cash. "American III: Solitary Man" stands on its own.
A late life Cash convert November 7, 2005
S. D Temple (Iowa City)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
I never liked Johnny Cash, and I've been a music fan for most of my 55+ years. Then, a year ago, I was in a used record shop in Norwich, England, when I heard something that stopped me in my tracks. "Who the hell is that?" I asked the kid behind the counter. "It's Johnny Cash," he said. And so it was, Johnny Cash singing "Spiritual", from one of the American records. I was stunned and overwhelmed by the lean beauty of that song, and the courage of the man singing it. Since that trip, I've bought all the American albums. This one, though, is simply my favorite. Cash's cover of Neil Diamond's Solitary Man is brilliant. And "The Mercy Seat" is just overwhelming in its emotional intensity and its deep ring of the truth. Was I ever wrong for all those years about The Man in Black. This music, spare, lean, intense, haunted, and brave, is unlike any American music I have ever heard. It comes closest to the raw intensity of the best of the blues. But it's all Johnny Cash, the one and only. Hear it, weep, and rejoice. This is a consummate artist at the peak of his career, even at its end.
Another Stellar Effort From An American Treasure October 20, 2000
Ron Frankl (Hendersonville, NC)
28 out of 30 found this review helpful
Faced with his own mortality, Johnny Cash is still rediscovering his artistry. "American III: Solitary Man" is his third solid release in the last six years. Working in collaboration with Rick Rubin, Cash has produced another thoughful and moving album. Johnny contributes for songs, while covering the likes of Tom Petty, David Alan Coe, U2, Nick Cave, Bert Williams, Will Oldham (!) and Neil Diamond (don't laugh, its a great song). Cash and Rubin once again take chances, and the result is wonderful. If Cash's vocals are a little rougher than last time out (1996's "Unchained") it just adds to the emotional wallop of the music. This man has made such great music for so many years. I've been listening to Johnny Cash for almost all my life and, even during the long period in which he was phoning it in in the recording studio, Cash was more interesting than almost any other musician. The fact that Johnny Cash is still making great music is a marvel, and I hope everyone that reads this gets to hear this terrific album.
TESTAMENT OF AN AMERICAN GIANT October 18, 2000
Alain Rozan (New York, NY United States)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
If you liked Bob Dylan's "Time out of mind", you will love "American III: Solitary man". This is the third Johnny Cash album on Rick Rubin's American label. Like the first one "American Recordings", it does not bother with big production, letting the man in black sing to you like he is in your living room. But whereas "American Recordings" was a solo album with Johnny Cash accompanying himself on guitar (he has limited guitar skills), "Solitary man" features beautiful accoustic guitar by the likes of Norman Blake, Mike Campbell, Randy Scruggs, Larry Perkins and Marty Stuart, delicate piano, organ and harmonium by Benmont Tench, fiddle by Laura Cash and accordion by Sheryl Crow. Whereas on "American Recordings the songs were varied in themes, the choice of songs here focuses almost exclusively on the reflections and the wisdom of a man who has done just about everything he set out to do and is now facing his demise. (He is seriously ill). From the opening line of Tom Petty's hit "I won't back down"("I won't back down, you can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won't back down, gonna' stand my ground")to the exquisite traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" which closes the album, this is a stark, yet tender, deeply moving collection(Cash's rendition of Nick Cave's "Mercy seat"-a song about a capital execution- is just chilling). Mr. Cash also has the ability to give hair raising intensity to the most simple words and to take a song which has been covered by just about everyone,like "Lucky old sun" and send chills down your spine with his rendition. He covers artists as varied as U2, Neil Diamond and David Allan Coe and yet this collection makes complete sense! He wrote one beautiful new song "Before my time" in which he reflects on his youth with a melancholy that never falls into regret. Special guests Tom Petty, Will Oldham Sheryl Crow, Merle Haggard and June Carter Cash sing harmony without ever intruding on the undiminished, deep, rugged, yet vulnerable baritone of this true American master. If this is a testament, one can only pray that he'll be able to add a few codicils...
Johnny Cash can do no wrong October 17, 2000
M. Nichols (West Chester, OH United States)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Albums like AMERICAN III: SOLITARY MAN will turn me to Jesus, if for no other reason than to kneel every day and thank God for Johnny Cash. During his tenure with American Records, Johnny has produced his finest music since the 50s and some of the very best music, country or otherwise, of the last decade.
AMERICAN III is a sparse recording, similar in production to 1994's AMERICAN RECORDINGS, but backed again by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as well as other guest artists. Again, largely a collection of covers, Cash proves he can make any song his own. "I Won't Back Down" takes on a special significance, considering Johnny's recent battles with illness. "Solitary Man" makes me wish he'd turn in an album of Neil Diamond covers, it's that good. All of the numbers are good, with "I See a Darkness" and "Wayfaring Stranger" standing out, but it's "The Mercy Seat" that stands as the album's centerpiece; an incredible Nick Cave cover sung from the electric chair, it literally sends chills down my spine.
Cash's baritone has taken on the character of weathered timbers - aged and gray, but still solid at the core. The man himself seems like an ancient barn in middle America; sagging and seeming ready for collapse at any moment, but having stood one hundred years, he may just stand one hundred more. Here's hoping.
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