Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways

It's always a little creepy when artists manage to release records from beyond the grave. But in the case of Johnny Cash's latest, American V: A Hundred Highways (American, 2006), the eeriness is rooted much deeper. The songs producer Rick Rubin chose to include here span from depressingly sad to sadly hopeful, and beyond – to just plain heartbroken.

With American V, there's no room for feeling let down. Cash, himself, only wrote two of the tunes on the record, "Like the 309" and "I Came to Believe", and both are gospel songs about having come through a life like his and been able to find salvation somewhere.

The strongest moments on the disc, however, come from his covers of great songs by other artists: Hank Williams' "On the Evening Train" and Don Gibson's "A Legend In My Time," for example, could just as well be written by Cash. In fact, it becomes clear that Cash's musical gift is in the interpretation of a song.

Countless artists have attacked the traditional tune "God's Gonna Cut You Down," but the way Johnny interprets it, you can feel the hard hand of Righteousness slapping down on the back of your neck with each pounding beat and deliberate phrase.

Conversely, on Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind," Cash's vocals are so desperate and hurt-sounding, it's enough to make your red bleeding heart break right in two.

There's little of the pompous cheekiness that so characterized Cash's younger singer/songwriter days. Gone is the brash bass voice that became so affiliated with the rebel country boy. This is an album absolutely saucy with salvation, heartbreak, and some serious hard-earned reckoning.