Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash had been a country star since the 1950s, but in the 1990s he captured the imagination of MTV-generation fans thanks to a string of acclaimed covers. Although he was hardly held in low regard, generations of music fans had grown up unaware of his music. On American Recordings, he performed songs from a range of writers, including Tom Waits and heavy metal star Glenn Danzig. Then in 2000 he released the album Solitary Man which solidified his reputation of breathing maturity into modern songs. My favourite is his version of U2's One which was totally magnificent. So too was the version of Nick Cave's The Mercy Seat, a record from the viewpoint of a death row inmate raging to the last. He died in 2003, and at the time of his death it seemed Johnny Cash had never been more important to the world music scene. Amen.