The questions about Johnny "The Man In Black" Cash's final album in the "American Recordings" series are as unavoidable as they are peripheral. While the vocal tracks were recorded in the months before Johnny Cash's death in 2003, the arrangements weren't undertaken until two years later. And though producer Rick Rubin had become a trusted friend, Johnny wasn't around to approve or disapprove, let alone guide, the final sessions. The songs Cash sings are, unsurprisingly, confessional and reflective: his mortality and his mistakes, his maker and his salvation, and the loss of his wife June and the end of his career may have weighed in on his mind, but in these songs he both embodies and transcends his personal history. Highlights include, where on Americans III & IV featured covers from the likes of Nine Inch Nails & Depeche Mode, any attempt to reach a new fan base is laid to rest in choices like, "If I Could Read Your Mind", a tear-jerking affair as Cash, clearly struggling, manages to deliver a deeply moving interpretation in that one-of-a-kind baritone. And just try to hold back the tears during "The Evening Train" -an undeniable tribute to his late wife. It's a stunner. On the new original "Like the 309", the last song Cash ever wrote, he cops to being short of breath, and that voice becomes a metaphor for what each of us will one day face. Dedicate some time and space for 'American V: A Hundred Highways' and be prepared to be left hauntingly numb when it is over. The entire "American Recordings" collection sounds like a man putting everything in order before his final call. Prison bars, Barreling trains, Love, God and journey of life. That is the Johnny Cash I remember, and whose music I loved listening to. A perfect album to listen to on a summer night as you sit out on the porch of your friends house in your hometown sucking down your favorite brew and watching the sun set in the distance. Above are fireflies in flight, and in the background, if you listen closely, you can hear a train. Thank you Johnny for the music.
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