WHEN FACING DOWN MORTALITY, WEAR YOUR LUCKY GRAVEYARD BOOTS.....

i've been listening to the recently released album by JOHN R CASH..........cobbled together post-humously from drips and drops of tunes he was working on just prior to his death, AMERICAN V: A HUNDRED HIGHWAYS is yet another reminder of how vital JOHNNY CASH was right up to the day he died.........again RICK RUBIN handled the production......and additional music was arranged by DOUG GILLIARD of GUIDED BY VOICES fame(which is an extreme left turn compared to his body of work to date)....... this record comes across like the final sentence in a very sweet and particularly confessional novel.........JOHNNY knew his time here was growing short several records before this one..........and he had no difficulty in saying so in his final songs.........the beauty of that is this.........you can empathize with this great artist........you can experience vicariously some of the pain of aging...........it's strange.......from song to song, you can almost tell whether it was a good day or a bad one, his vocal quality ranged so much..........

GILLIARD handled the additional music with the appropriate kid gloves............the music is understated and damned near majestic...........i am suitably impressed............and the more i learn about JOHNNY CASH, the more he becomes a hero of mine........

i highly recommend this record..........

Track Listing:

1. Help Me
2. God's Gonna Cut You Down
3. Like The 309
4. If You Could Read My Mind
5. Further On Up The Road
6. The Evening Train
7. I Came To Believe
8. Love's Been Good To Me
9. A Legend In My Time
10. Rose Of My Heart
11. Four Strong Winds
12. I'm Free From The Chain Gang Now


rock it like you're trying to commit murder..........

stak