Johnny Cash has a new album: Johnny Cash V.
It sounds sad and good. Excerpt from review:
Though weak in voice and almost completely blind by then, his spirit was never stronger, and that spirit shines through strongly on these intense performances. They are not musically pretty but they will grab and hold your attention through sheer will.
The more fragile Cash became physically, it seemed the more he gained acute insights into the music he wanted to round out his life and career. This CD reflects a man who had come to terms with his own mortality and who could unflinchingly look eternity in the eye. . . .
He converts Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" -- which I had heretofore regarded as a relatively carefree song -- into a dark night of the soul of a dying man. Similarly, Don Gibson's "A Legend in My Time" becomes a wryly brooding, almost bleak look back at Cash's own life and legend. In the same way, Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds" becomes a bittersweet farewell message.
When I received Johnny Cash IV as a birthday present, I started listening to it, didn't care for it, put it away, and forgot about it. I got it out again after hearing his rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water during Red Cross Hurricane Katrina advertisements. I haven't stopped listening to it. It doesn't beat Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, but it's one of my favorites. Maybe V will join it.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison:
Johnny Cash V:
