This title offers a superb investigation of what is arguably Johnny Cash's greatest album, focusing on his enduring mythology. When Johnny Cash signed to Rick Rubin's record label in 1993, he was a country music legend who, like his fellow Highwaymen Willie, Waylon and Kris, remained a fondly regarded yet completely marginalized Nashville figure, unheard on the radio and unseen on the charts. Cash's odyssey from oldies act to folk hero pivots on his first American Recordings album, a document of almost unbearable solitude and directness. It is a singular record, an instance in which a musical giant has been granted a kind of midnight reprieve, a chance to regain and renew his legend. Tony Tost illuminates the ways in which American Recordings is the crossroads where cultural, spiritual and mythic archetypes come together in the figure of The Man in Black. Ultimately, this is a guidebook to myth and mystery, a means of apprehending the stark beauty of Cash's greatest record, the sound of a man alone and fighting for his soul, one song at a time.
By:
Tony Tost
Imprint: Continuum Publishing Corporation
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 165mm,
Width: 121mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 196g
ISBN: 9781441174611
ISBN 10: 1441174613
Series: 33 1/3
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 28 April 2011
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface Permanence (1) Permanence (2) Americana (1) Independence Day The Gift Americana (2) Delia Let the Train Blow the Whistle The Beast in Me Drive On Why Me, Lord Bad Luck Wind Cowboy Prayers Precedence To Be Free He Had the Nerve and He Had the BloodWhere Are Your Guts? Where the Train Goes Slow Redemption Like a SoldierPermanence (3) The Man Who Couldn't Cry The Old, Weird American
Tony Tost is a scholar and poet who lives in Seattle, Washington. The author of two poetry collections, he was the recipient of the Walt Whitman Award in 2003. He is currently completing a dissertation on myth, technology and the poetic imagination at Duke University.
Reviews for Johnny Cash's American Recordings
Reviewed on Popmatters.com http: //www.popmatters.com/pm/review/144651-johnny-cash-american-recordings
