Johnny Cash - American Recordings I-VI

Johnny Cash American Recordings I-VI in a limited edition 180-gram 7LP box set

Featuring all six of The Man In Black's critically acclaimed American Recordings albums

In the early '90s, Johnny Cash signed to Rick Rubin's American label and began releasing the American Recordings series of albums. Produced by Rubin, the American Recordings were stark, stripped-down, mostly acoustic meditations on the more apocalyptic side of his persona, writes Rolling Stone. Cash covered Beck, Nick Cave, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Soundgarden, Danzig, and, of course, Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt." And he cemented his reputation as one of the reigning badasses in American music history — not that that rep really needed much help.

These are acoustic roots-radical albums on hip hop/metal producer Rick Rubin's label of the same name. The albums wonderfully capture Cash's famous baritone as powerful as ever. The set includes American Recordings, Unchained, Solitary Man, The Man Comes Around, American V: A Hundred Highways and the final chapter and last recording in the series, American VI: Ain't No Grave.

Topping out on the C&W chart at No. 23 and lingering on the pop chart for nine weeks, American Recordings also took home a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. In addition to Cash originals like "Let The Train Blow the Whistle," "Drive On," "Redemption," and "Like A Soldier," the intimate 13-song set features stirring covers of songs by artists of all backgrounds including Nick Lowe ("The Beast In Me"), Kris Kristofferson ("Why Me Lord"), Glenn Danzig ("Thirteen"), Leonard Cohen ("Bird On A Wire"), Tom Waits ("Down There By the Train") and Loudon Wainwright III ("The Man Who Couldn't Cry"). 

Cash returned with its equally as impressive follow-up Unchained in 1996. Whereas American Recordings featured Johnny unaccompanied on acoustic guitar, Unchained finds the music legend backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Marty Stuart. The heartfelt 14-song set again consists of a mix of Cash originals like "Country Boy," "Mean Eyed Cat" and "Meet Me in Heaven" and effective covers of material by a diverse selection of artists including Beck ("Rowboat"), Soundgarden ("Rusty Cage") and Tom Petty ("Southern Accents") among others. Unchained became Cash's second straight Grammy-winning album, this time for Best Country Album.