This is an old Lucinda Williams song that Johnny Cash apparently covered for the American sessions he recorded with Rick Rubin near the end of his life. The great thing about the American sessions is that Johnny hobbled through scores of songs and marked every one of them his own.
I think the musical arrangement here is bold but hamhanded, and Cash’s performance is a little wispy at times, and the whole abandoned thing is haphazardly mixed, but a fine song shines regardless, as it does here.
Love the last-gasp Johnny Cash stuff (it was a pretty long last-gasp actually) and I love(d) Rick Rubin too. For a time I was buying stuff just because Rubin produced it. Can’t say I’ve ever done that before or since. The debut Masters of Reality, The Cult “Electric” and the fantastic live rockin’ blues “King King” by The Red Devils are probably my favorite three Rubins (in that order). Kind of lost track of ol’ Rick. Don’t really know what he’s doing these days.