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Johnny Cash
American V: A Hundred Highways
(American/Lost Highway)
The Music Box's #6 album of 2006
First Appeared in The Music Box, July 2006, Volume 13, #7
Written by John Metzger
Motherhood. Apple Pie. Baseball. Independence Day. American Recordings.
Johnny Cash. American V: A Hundred Highways. From any other artist, the
invocation of such a patriotic string of ideas would sound like a pretentious
marketing campaign. For Johnny Cash, whose iconic status has grown even greater
since his passing in September 2003, these terms merely present a statement of
fact. The recording of his latest effort American V: A Hundred Highways
began on the day that its predecessor American IV: The Man Comes Around
was released, and although it would have been easy to rush the collection to
market immediately after his death, its power and potency almost certainly would
have been tempered by the hoopla that surrounded the biopic Walk the Line,
the box sets (The Legend and The Complete Sun Sessions 1955-1958),
and the countless other repackaged retrospectives that quickly flooded store
shelves around the globe. In a rare moment of restraint from an industry that
increasingly thrives on instant gratification, the set wisely was held back
until it could be judged on its own merit.
Granted, there is some truth to the notion that the American Recordings
series has, at times, been delivered awkwardly. On the one hand, the
stripped-down ambience that has clung to most of the material has suited Cash
far better than the studio polish that unfortunately has marred many of his
works. By contrast, Cash didn’t connect completely with some of the oddball song
selections that mastermind and producer Rick Rubin threw his way. That’s what
makes American V: A Hundred Highways so unique. Touching upon the
familiar themes of life, death, love, and God, the collection initially might
seem, at least on paper, to be cut from the same cloth as just about every other
album that Cash has released. One listen to its contents, however, and the raw,
emotional intimacy of his performance becomes readily apparent.
Like its predecessors, American V: A Hundred Highways is composed
almost entirely of cover songs, but this time, the material is so well-chosen
that all the sorrow and anguish that permeated American IV: The Man Comes
Around’s covers of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, Hank Williams’ I’m So
Lonesome I Could Cry, and the standard We’ll Meet Again is magnified
a thousand-fold. "Lord, help me walk another mile, just one more mile," Cash
sings with genuine weariness on American V: A Hundred Highways’ opening
track, a sparse rendition of Larry Gatlin’s Help Me, and the fright
within his voice suitably sets the tone for the remainder of the affair.
At times, it’s almost painful to listen as Cash publicly grieves the passing
of his wife June Carter and struggles with his own deteriorating health. Hank
Williams’ On the Evening Train is as appropriate as any of the selections
featured on American V: A Hundred Highways, and from the palpable ache in
Cash’s voice, it’s clear that the song’s sentiments convey his most intimate
thoughts. Elsewhere, on Like the 309, Cash’s final composition, he
imagines his own demise to be akin to a train ride, while If You Could Read
My Mind — Gordon Lightfoot’s distressed depiction of a shattered
relationship — is painstakingly transformed into a haunted, mournful lament that
is as much about Cash’s coming to terms with the emotions surrounding the death
of his spouse as it is a message to his children from beyond the grave. For a
man who once carried himself with the tough, rugged defiance of an outlaw, he
now sounds fragile and frail, his spirit nearly broken by life’s misfortunes.
Still, not all of the material on American V: A Hundred Highways is
nearly as depressing, and during the set’s latter half, Cash’s suffocating veil
of sorrow begins to lift. On a reworking of I Came to Believe, he revels
in his spirituality, and on songs like Hugh Moffatt’s Rose of My Heart
and Rod McKuen’s Love’s Been Good to Me, he reflects fondly upon the
relationships that he has had over the course of his life. Make no mistake,
these are pivotal moments on the effort, ones which help to alter the mood of
its narrative arc and drive it toward its inevitable conclusion. Unfortunately,
they also have less of an emotional impact, even if they do serve to illuminate
the darkness that sometimes seems nearly inescapable. It’s only within the
comforting liberation that he details on the outing’s concluding tracks (Ian
Tyson’s Four Strong Winds and Jimmie Rodgers’ I’m Free from the Chain
Gang Now) that the resonance fully returns. Nevertheless, any lingering
skepticism regarding the posthumous issuance of American V: A Hundred
Highways ought to be put on hold at least until the unveiling of the
promised sixth installment in the series, which Rick Rubin insists there is
enough material to assemble. Simply put: American V: A Hundred Highways
is a gem of an album that easily ranks among Cash’s most cathartic works. 
American V: A Hundred Highways is available from Amazon.com.
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49th Annual Grammy Award Winner:
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical
Rick Rubin
50th Annual Grammy Award Winner:
Best Short Form Music Video
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2006 The Music Box
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