Johnny Cash made fantastically good country music, so good that someone like me who usually can't stomach the stuff thinks it's some of the best music ever made. He had a good voice, he could cover a song, he could even write one when he fancied it. And he was prolific, making many albums, writing many songs and covering dozens more to good effect. And he came out with some of the best Gospel and Christmas music you'll ever hear too. But since no one is perfect, including him, he also came out with some career low points as well, and I'm sad to say that American III: Solitary Man is unfortunately one of them. Not a bad album as such, there is a good sense of competence to this album, and tracks #1, #2 and #4 are great, but the rest of the album is in ways a desert wasteland - flat and desolate, yet just short of completely dull. "Country Trash" is a bold, slightly un-PC high point, and "Mary of the Wild Moor" is just aggravatingly melancholic. The others, such as "The Mercy Seat" and "Would You Lay Me Down (In a Field of Stone)" sound like they are about to hit the climatic gravy stroke, but never quite seem to get there. Sadly, an album of mostly fillers. B
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