American Recordings (I)

Today's Music That We're Lucky To Have is Johnny Cash's American Recordings. Now I won't go into a great deal of history about this album, and its follow-ups, but there's a pretty good story about it, and how Johnny Cash was coerced into making music again when he had pretty much settled into retirement. To make a long story short, we're fortunate to have this music. This was the first of five 'American' albums; the last of them was recorded not long before Johnny passed away.

And it's good! It's pretty simple stuff, mostly just Johnny playing guitar and singing. The first song, "Delia's Gone", is a nice ballad about a man who shot his lover, a sweet tune. The entire album is less morose but maintains the same simple tone. It's unironic, earnest music that I think should appeal to everyone (though maybe not all the time; I wouldn't put this on during a party unless I wanted everyone to leave). So give this album a listen. I know that taste in music is subjective, so you may not like it as well as things that are louder or easy to dance to or that have more clever 'pop culture' references. But then again, you might also be a tool.

In other news:
I'm not quite there but I'm close.