Unchained

Where the first American album had only Cash and a guitar, Unchained put him with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was the 82nd album by Cash and the second in the series produced by Rick Rubin. Marty Stuart played additional guitar on more than half the songs, Flea played bass on Spiritual, and Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood appeared on Sea of Heartbreak.

Most of the songs are by other writers: Jude Johnstone wrote Unchained, Petty wrote Southern Accents, Spain wrote Spiritual, Soundgarden wrote Rusty Cage and Beck wrote Rowboat, and there is a version of I've Been Everywhere by Geoff Mack. Cash also recut Country Boy from 1957 and Mean Eyed Cat from 1960. It was recorded over six months with the engineer Sylvia Massy at Sound City Studios. It won the Grammy for Best Country Album, and Cash was nominated for Best Male Country Vocal for Rusty Cage.