Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways

On the day after American IV was finished, Johnny Cash started recording some of the songs that would eventually end up on this album. On the day after June Carter Cash died, Johnny called Producer Rick Rubin and said, 'I have to get to work.' In the four months between her death and his own, Johnny Cash recorded some thirty songs, focusing his sorrow into the work he'd loved for his entire life. The result? One of the finest records of his career.

When "American Recordings IV: The Man Comes Around" was finished, most people assumed it would be Johnny Cash's final album. But Cash wasn't ready to call it quits. According to his son John Carter, the moment he finished IV, he started compiling songs for V, gearing up to record whenever his frail health allowed. But in the months following the death of his beloved wife, June, Johnny simply had to work. The result is an album which is surprisingly upbeat, an oddly delightful followup to the often bleak but stirring IV.

Cash's frail voice remains a little shaky, sometimes he's a little out of breath, but on the whole, he actually sounds less tired than he did on the songs from IV. It's as though IV was his acknowledgment of his own mortality, and V is his acceptance of same. Even songs with a powerful message of death, such as his final composition, "Like The 309," are delivered with Cash's old humor and feckless love of life. Perhaps in a way he knew he'd be following June; perhaps he was ready to go, and his final work was his way of bidding farewell to a hard but happy life.

Whatever else it is, message or not, it's certainly a fine album, and a great way to remember Johnny Cash. Rick Rubin held it this long because it was hard for him to finish, and he also wanted to wait for the fervor around Cash's passing, the posthumous releases, and the movie to die down. It was worth the wait. This isn't a swan song or a tribute. It's a great Johnny Cash album.