One of the things that makes Johnny Cash such an enduring musical storyteller is his unerring ability to interpret a song, to find the feeling in it and sing every word as if it's happening to him right at the moment of recording - whether he wrote it himself or he's just borrowing it. So it's only fitting that his final recordings explore the themes of leaving and dying; not unusual subject matter for Cash or others of his ilk, but when Johnny sings now - in his cracked, lived-in voice that occasionally lets roar angrily like the Cash of old - about impending death charging towards him like the 309 ready to take him away, we feel it too and know that "Dr Death" is only too close. We know he's singing his life out, like he's always done.
Cash's unlikely late-life friendship with rap/rock producer Rick Rubin led to the American Recordings series, introducing the Man in Black to new audiences without alienating those that have always loved his particular brand of Americana and his unique booming drawl. Covering unlikely artists like Nine Inch Nails, collaborating with modern versions of himself as he did with Will Oldham, choosing songs that would tell his story in the words of others as well as writing new material that told it his way, the series cemented Cash's place in the canon and have left us with a fitting tribute to both the music and the man who sang it. American V: A Hundred Highways finds Cash weary, suddenly without June Carter Cash, his reason for living, and battling the indignities of old age - including asthma, which he sings about and wheezes with on these recordings. By all rights this should sound like an old man's last gasp but instead it is a wistful farewell, with a good dose of raging against the dying of the light, as you would expect.
Brilliant song choices see Cash taking on Springsteen, Gordon Lightfoot and Hank Williams, amongst others, as well as including the final songs he wrote himself. One of the originals, 'Like the 309', ranks amongst the finest that Cash has ever written, blending traditional Appalachian folk-blues with a modern take on country, and his cover of the backhandedly-romantic 'If You Could Read My Mind' (written by Gordon Lightfoot but endlessly covered in its time) is as moving as anything from the series so far. As far as final albums go, this will take some beating. Highly recommended. |
