American Recordings Songs Ranked

American Recordings is the 81st album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released on April 26, 1994^[1] by American Recordings, after it had changed its name from Def American. The album marked the beginning of a career resurgence for Cash, who was widely recognized as an icon of American music but whose record sales had suffered during the late 1970s and 1980s. Under Rubin’s supervision, Cash recorded most of the album in his own Tennessee cabin or Rubin’s home in Los Angeles, accompanied only by his guitar. This was a return to Cash’s earliest recording style. His first producer, Sam Phillips, had determined in the 1950s that Cash’s voice was best suited to a stripped-down style and a three or four-piece ensemble (Cash on vocals and guitar, backed with another guitarist and upright bass, and sometimes drums). Here are all of American Recordings’ songs ranked.

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13. The Man Who Couldn’t Cry

“The last track, a Loudon Wainright III tune “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry”, is one of the live recordings from the Viper Room. A funny, self-aware song about a man’s downfall and subsequent redemption. The audience clearly loves the song and Viper Room owner Johnny Depp can be heard cheering after one of the verses.”

12. Redemption

“The theme continues into “Redemption”, a self-penned tune where Johnny paints Jesus’ cross as a modern day Tree of Life watered by his blood and offering new life to those who partake of it.”

11. Tennessee Stud

“For some people, this album is too dark and miserable, but most people recognize this album for what it is – a masterpiece. In any case, not all the songs are dark. Tennessee stud (for example) is quite an upbeat song.”

10. Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy’s Prayer)

“This is simply one of the best albums ever. It is immediately touching, striking, frightening, and incredibly personal. It is almost as if Johnny Cash is your personal psychologist; how else could he know about all of the thoughts and feelings that exist in the bowels of your soul?”

See more: Johnny Cash Albums Ranked

9. Why Me Lord

“Forget the fact that this album revitalized Johnny Cash’s career and brought him to the doorsteps of the alternative rock crowd….The only thing one needs to know is that it is an absolute masterwork.”

8. The Beast in Me

“Nick Lowe’s “The Beast in Me” despairs at the darkest inclinations lurking in us (“Sometimes it tries to kid me/that it’s just a teddy bear/And even somehow manage to vanish in thin air/and that is when I must beware…”) all and Cash tears into it as a man who understands that at heart people are NOT good..despite what sugary “I’m OK..you’re OK” pop psychology would have us believe.”

7. Delia’s Gone

“This is Johnny Cash stripped down to the essentials and they are pretty impressive. This is proven with the opening track, “Delia’s Gone,” which is probably the best known track from the album since it was a music video that introduced Cash on MTV to the alternative-grunge generation.”

See more: Johnny Cash Songs Ranked

6. Let the Train Blow the Whistle

“It took a producer of rap music to bring a country icon back to the limelight and to the attention of a fresh generation. At first blush, Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash seem like an odd pairing until you consider what their styles have in common.”

5. Drive On

“He also tells a bracing Viet vet’s story in “Drive On,” and that song gives me chills something fierce, it’s so honest. But that’s just one of the many provocative classics here.”

4. Thirteen

“The bad-luck rebel in Glenn Danzig’s “Thirteen” was a perfect match for Cash’s outlaw persona and he makes the song his. “Thirteen” makes you wonder whether Cash is on the side of God or Satan.”

3. Bird on a Wire

“It’s hard to believe that over half of the songs on this album are actually not written by Cash himself. He takes these songs and commands them; they’re damn near definitive readings, if not fully definitive.”

2. Down There by the Train

“Tom Wait’s “Down there by the Train” is a stark picture of salvation offered to the most hardened and crusty offenders..(“I saw Judas Iscariot carryin’ John Wilkes Boothe”) even you and me.”

1. Like a Soldier

“Here Cash is as dark, honest and beautiful as he would get in a studio. The story goes that Rick Rubin recorded these songs in his living room as demos for an eventual album. Listening to the demos in order to get ideas for full arrangements he realised that he could never better these recordings.”