A flurry of activity will greet the 80th birthday of Johnny Cash, including a museum dedicated to his life and the release of Bootleg Vol. IV: The Soul of Truth, a 2-CD, 51-track collection of gospel and spiritual recordings from the 1970s and ’80s. You May Also Like: How JohnnyRead More

It’s one thing to cover somebody, quite another to expose something fundamentally true about the original song through your interpretation — and that happens with Johnny Cash’s take on this Bob Dylan classic. You May Also Like: How Johnny Cash Challenged Convention Once Again on ‘American Recordings’ How Johnny Cash’sRead More

by Fred Phillips When Johnny Cash came to work with Rick Rubin in the 1990s, American Records had another man in black already on the roster — Glenn Danzig. You May Also Like: Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, “Boomtown Blues” from The Distance (1982): One Track Mind

by Nick DeRiso For me, the traditional year-ending Top 10 list has a more utilitarian standard: Which albums did I add to my permanent rotation? See, it’s the rarest of rare items that actually becomes a member of the collection. That’s the kind of standout recording we’ll be talking aboutRead More

by Mark Saleski For many years, I was very comfortable with the statement: “I hate country music.” It was easy to say because there was so much evidence all around: Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Faith Hill and all of that — it was really just pop music with belt buckles,Read More

by Mark Saleski From the cool & creepy photo of the record left on Elvis’ turntable the day he died (“The Stamps”) to the beautiful and somewhat bittersweet picture of Johnny Cash and June carter, Annie Leibovitz’ American Music is just filled to overflowing with photo portraits of a wideRead More