The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash

A song from a genre you didn’t think you’d like—what changed? Growing up, and through my time at Hospital Radio Lennox, there was one genre I just didn’t get. I begrudgingly would admit I enjoyed specific tracks but, the genre on a whole just wasn’t for me. It sounded like music for old people, those looking to a nostalgic past whereas I —young, vibrant, and very alive for the future— was plunging head long into grunge, electronica, dance, hip hop, and the other subgenres that exploded through my youth. Country & Western wasn’t for me. I knew many names —the joys of a request show at hospital radio— and Mr. Cash was one of them, Ring of Fire being trotted out anytime we went for a curry (hilarious, I know). And then, as he approached the end of his life, Johnny Cash released the album American IV: The Man Comes Around. I was drawn to it entirely for his stunningly moving cover of the Nine Inch Nails track Hurt, but the entire album was soon on rotation and it’s stripped back sound,…