American V: A Hundred Highways : Johnny Cash : Review : Rolling Stone

Wheelchair-bound, nearly blind and close to the end, Johnny Cash nonetheless punched in for work immediately after American IV: The Man Comes Around was released in 2002. The first posthumous album in the Rick Rubin-produced American series will reportedly be followed by at least one more. Still, A Hundred Highways feels like a deathbed benediction. The snarling brawn and pitch control and oom-chicka-boom good humor of his great earlier recordings were long behind him, but it turns out those weren't the secret of his art anyway. The glory of Cash's records was the dignity and gravity he imparted to any old trifle his producers tossed at him, and as long as he had breath left in him, he could play the Man in Black.

Luckily, Rubin had an immaculate sense of how to frame Cash's voice -- these stark, mostly acoustic arrangements don't try to conceal the singer's ruined instrument but find authority in its quavers and crags. He was even better at picking songs for Cash to Cashify, and this time they're specifically about helplessness, acceptance and romantic nostalgia in the face of approaching death. There are no transfigurations of modern-rock songs here. Instead, the repertoire comes from Americana blue chips (like Hank Sr., Springsteen and Trad. Arr., whose "God's Gonna Cut You Down" gets a magnificently chilling performance), and Cash himself, including his final composition, a train-song-as-meditation-on-mortality called "Like the 309." It's a hard record to bear, but it's a deep one: Concluding with a resigned rerecording of 1962's "I'm Free From the Chain Gang Now," Cash makes it clear that the prison he always sang about was his mortal body and the world.

DOUGLAS WOLK

(Posted: Jun 26, 2006)

News and Reviews

How to Play This Album

Click the play button.
Register or enter your username and password.
Let the music play!

No commitment.
It's FREE.

Track List

Play All

Your Turn

Give us your review of American V: A Hundred Highways

Review 1 of 3

4of 5 Stars

JOHNNY CASH
V: A HUNDRED HIGHWAYS (American)
Is it just me, or has the last part of Johnny Cash's life been absolutely revelatory? And with such a stellar career that includes early rockabilly sides for Sun Records, number one country chart toppers, legendary prison concerts, and a national television show - that ain't no mean feat. But when Rick Rubin convinced Cash, who at the time was out to pasture, to record some contemporary standards in a sparse guitar and voice setting, it was truly a stroke of genius. Here with album five, comes Cash's epitaph, and thankfully, it's a fitting one. Recorded shortly before his passing, "A Hundred Highways" - his strongest effort since the brilliant "Solitary Man" - is made up of apropos covers and a couple of poignant originals, delivered with a voice that is sometimes strong and age-wise, and sometimes beautifully fragile. A bit more traditional in it's delivery than the others in the series, this album captures a lonely Cash (wife June passed earlier) coming to grips with mortality, yet still having enough verve to inject a bit of self-effacing humour when the time is right. It's a great way to go out. (Sekerka)

Aug 25, 2006 12:22:00

Review 2 of 3

3of 5 Stars

Open Letter to Douglas Wolk:
I hope you were joking about this " . . . and Trad. Arr., whose "God's Gonna Cut You Down" gets a . . . )," but I'm scared that you weren't.
Trad Arr is not a person....

Jul 10, 2006 10:41:38

Review 3 of 3

5of 5 Stars

An absolutely unbeleivable album. The songs are all individually great, the performance is very heartfelt and open. Instantly became a favorite after one listen, this is not even one of my preferred genres. This is the sort of album either you get or you don't, with one listen you'll be either hooked or puzzled. For those that get hooked, it is a five star all the way.

Jul 7, 2006 21:53:21

Previous Next