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American VI: Ain't No Grave album cover

Album · 2010

American VI: Ain't No Grave

by Johnny Cash

American VI: Ain't No Grave is a 2010 country album by Johnny Cash. It runs 10 tracks across 32 minutes on Columbia.

Country · Americana · Contemporary Folk

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76 /100
10 critics
10
Tracks
32 min
Runtime
102 bpm
Tempo
F minor
Key

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Tracklist

10 tracks · 32 min

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About

Released for the occasion of Johnny Cash's 78th birthday, American VI: Ain't No Grave is the final installment in the collaboration between Cash and Rick Rubin that began with 1994’s American Recordings. These ten songs were cut during the same sessions for American V: A Hundred Highways. Guitarists Mike Campbell, Matt Sweeney, Smokey Hormel, and Benmont Tench on keyboards were present, as were other musicians. June Carter Cash died during routine surgery during these sessions. Cash, though grief stricken and with full knowledge that he too was dying due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, worked as often as his health would allow. He died three months after these songs were recorded. Ain't No Grave is an elegiac and deeply spiritual album, a formal goodbye without regret from a man and an artist of almost mythic stature. The song selection is rooted in the Americana, folk, country, and gospel traditions. There is an excellent reading of Tom Paxton's “Wonder Where I’m Bound” that doesn’t feel as lost as the original, but more a statement after reflecting on a life fully lived.

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Likewise his version of Sheryl Crow's “Redemption Day” sums up Cash’s own long commitment to social justice, and the need for individual accountability; its statement of hope is underscored here not as a dream, but as a conviction. Kris Kristofferson's “For the Good Times” begins with the words: “Don’t look so sad, I know it’s over/But life goes on/And this ole world will keep on turning.” It offers a portrait of the dignity and grace Cash performed with all his life. “I Corinthian’s 15:55” is his last self-penned song, a sweet, country-gospel melody that echoes far beyond the margins of contemporary music to an earlier time, and looks at the future with unshakable faith. The title track is a country-gospel-blues by Brother Claude Ely -- it’s a fierce showdown with the Reaper, with the singer winning it hands down. There are excellent covers of Bob Nolan's “Cool Water,” a song Cash often sang live that expresses empathy for the downtrodden, and “Satisfied Mind,” written by Jack Rhodes and Red Hayes, played on a lone acoustic guitar, which dispenses the truth of earthly life into two-minutes-and-forty-eight seconds. Ed McCurdy's “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” is a true anti-war song that serves as a testimonial. The album’s final cut is Queen Liliuokalani's traditional Hawaiian ballad “Aloha Oe,” one of the sweetest, most affectionate leaving songs ever written. And Cash’s version? It’s devastatingly beautiful; to the point of tears. If there were any justice, Ain't No Grave would be the last album released under Cash’s name. It is not only a compelling contribution to his legacy, but an offering that closes the historic American Recordings series with the same stamp of quality that began it.

In brief

When was American VI: Ain't No Grave released?
American VI: Ain't No Grave was released in 2010 on Columbia.
How many tracks are on American VI: Ain't No Grave?
American VI: Ain't No Grave has 10 tracks, with a runtime of 32 minutes.
What genre is American VI: Ain't No Grave?
American VI: Ain't No Grave is catalogued under Country, Americana, Contemporary Folk.
What BPM is American VI: Ain't No Grave?
American VI: Ain't No Grave runs at a median tempo of 102 BPM across its tracks, most often in F minor, measured from audio analysis.
What albums are similar to American VI: Ain't No Grave?
Listeners of American VI: Ain't No Grave also rate In Rainbows by Radiohead, Abbey Road by The Beatles, Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan.

American VI: Ain't No Grave at a glance

Labels
American Recordings, Universal Music Group Nashville
Produced by
Rick Rubin

Facts from Wikidata (CC0).