Johnny Cash - American V

[Spurminator]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/0...tml#johnnycash

Johnny Cash's American V Revealed

James Gregory reports:
As recently reported, the next chapter in Johnny Cash's celebrated American Recordings series is nearing its summer release date-- with American V: A Hundred Highways hitting stores on July 4. How appropriate for such a consummate American ins ution.

Once again produced by ZZ Top understudy Rick Rubin, the album will feature twelve selections taken from the country legend's final 2003 recording sessions. The official tracklist has made its way into the Pitchfork inbox, via a recent press release from Lost Highway Records:

01 Help Me
02 God's Gonna Cut You Down
03 Like the 309
04 If You Could Read My Mind
05 Further on up the Road
06 The Evening Train
07 I Came to Believe
08 Love's Been Good to Me
09 A Legend in My Time
10 Rose of My Heart
11 Four Strong Winds
12 I'm Free From the Chain Gang Now

A less flashy batch of tunes than the previous American entry (which saw the Man in Black singing on such square-peg covers as "Personal Jesus" and a dazed Fiona Apple duet on "Bridge Over Troubled Water"), the record offers a genuinely warm epitaph to Cash's influential career with weathered but spirited takes on Bruce Springsteen, Gordon Lightfoot, and Rod McKuen tunes, as well as his own "Like the 309", which marks Cash's last original composition put to tape.

As Rubin said in a previous statement about the collection, "These songs are Johnny's final statement. They are the truest reflection of the music that was central to his life at the time. This is the music that Johnny wanted us to hear."

* Pitchfork Review: Johnny Cash: Personal File
* Pitchfork News: New, Unreleased Johnny Cash Material Due
* Pitchfork Feature: Cash and Currency: The Man in Black: 1932-2003
* Johnny Cash: www.johnnycash.com/

[pache100]

Gotta have it...going to Amazon to sign up for pre-sale...

edit...can't find it anywhere; if you see it for sale, please let me know.

[Spurminator]

Bought this yesterday. It's beautiful. His best stuff since "Unchained." It's mostly covers, like the previous releases, but these covers are more obscure (at least to me.)

[DarkReign]

Cash = God

[1369]

Got it last night off iTunes. Powerful stuff. A bit more "polished" than I would have liked (probably due to the arrangements laid down after Cash set the vocals and then passed away), but good nonetheless.