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Johnny Cash passed away on 12 September 2003,
leaving a great void in not only country music, but also music
in general. Though a sick man Cash had worked with record producer
Rick Rubin for several months recording some new songs that
Cash felt he needed and wanted to record. His wife of 35 years,
June Carter Cash passed in May that same year bringing about
the most physically and emotionally painful times in Cash's
life. Working on American V - A Hundred
Highways was a way that Johnny Cash coped with his great
loss, keeping him focused and proved to be his salvation.
There are 12 tracks on American
V - A Hundred Highways. Cash began recording the tracks
in 2002 after releasing the American IV album that November.
Over an eight-month period the songs were recorded at  Rubin's
Los Angeles studio and Johnny Cash's main home in Nashville,
plus his fabled cabin located across the road. With Cash's frail
health Rubin arranged for an engineer and guitar players to
be on hand to record when Cash felt strong enough to do so.
American V - A Hundred
Highways opens with Johnny Cash offering a poignant plea
to God with "Help Me"
(Larry Gatlin), the traditional "God's
Gonna Cut You Down" comes next and is followed by
the last song that Johnny Cash wrote, "Like
The 309"…a train song with a choppy beat and the
lines "Everybody take a look/See I'm doin' fine/Then load
my box/On the 309".
American V is
an album that shouts out that a man sees the end of his life
not being far down the track and the frailty can be heard in
Johnny Cash's voice. Other tracks to be found here include a
haunting version of "If You Could
Read My Mind" (Gordon Lightfoot), Bruce Springsteen's
"Further On (Up The Road)"
and Hank Williams' touching "On The
Evening Train".
"I Came To Believe"
was written by Cash and originally recorded by him early in
his career. Rod McKuen's "Love's
Been Good To Me" sits perfectly as it displays the
thoughts of a man looking back at some of the good times in
a man's long life. Don Gibson's "A
Legend In My Time" says it all about Johnny Cash.
The last three tracks on the album include Hugh Moffatt's lovely
"Rose Of My Heart", "Four
Strong Winds" (Ian  Tyson)
and "I'm Free From The Chain Gang
Now" (Lou Herscher/Saul Klein).
Rick Rubin says "it was decided to wait
to release American V: A Hundred Highways
untill the recent Cash hubbub had run its course. These songs
are Johnny's final statement. This is the music Johnny wanted
us to hear."
On a personal note…Johnny Cash's album Ring
Of Fire (Columbia/CBS 1963) was the first country album that
I bought as a teenager and now over 40 years down the line American
V - A Hundred Highways is an album not to be left out
of the record collection of the likes of myself and the many
worldwide fans of Johnny Cash, both young and old!!!
Aug 2006
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