Johnny Cash. - Review - sound recording review

Interview, Nov, 2000 by Edward Helmore

American III: Solitary Man (American)

It would be churlish to deny Johnny Cash the epic grandeur of his personage, story, and music--all of life's contours can be detected in his weary voice. But there are parts of this beautifully spare and, for the most part, excellent disc that tend to karaoke. Someone might have discouraged the grizzled troubadour from covering U2's overwrought anthem "One" and Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" when his own songs here-- especially "Wayfaring Stranger," which finds him contemplating the afterlife--are as affecting as anything he's done.