Reviews

CD: Johnny Cash

Towards the end of his life, Johnny Cash underwent one of the most remarkable rebirths in popular music. Working with the producer Rick Rubin, he created a string of albums under the title American Recordings — these featured his versions of leftfield tracks like Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’ and Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Hurt’ as well as the kind of the material for which he was better known: country and gospel. By then, Cash’s voice was cracked with age, but it also came loaded with gravitas and grace.

Eleven years after his death Cash remains up there in the pantheon of the greats. Now comes Out Among The Stars, Cash’s ‘lost album’, a project he recorded in 1984, but which his record company declined to release.