A Lot More Johnny Cash Music Coming Your Way

05/02/06 6:30pm

The last songs recorded by Johnny Cash before he passed away at age 71 in September 2003 will be released on July 4 on American V: A Hundred Highways.

The American/Lost Highway album features two Cash originals, "I Came To Believe" and "Like The 309," the last song he ever wrote. Hank Williams, Bruce Springsteen and Rod McKuen are among the artists covered on the fifth volume of songs that Cash recorded with producer Rick Rubin.

Cash and Rubin began recording American V in 2002, one day after finishing American IV: The Man Comes Around, which was released that November. Cash was in ill health and feared that American IV would be his last album, so they started to work on new songs immediately. They were recorded over eight months at Rubin's Los Angeles studio as well as in Cash's home and a neighbouring cabin. An engineer and guitarists were kept on call for the days when Cash felt well enough to work.

Rubin began going through the recordings last year and David "Fergie" Ferguson, Cash's longtime engineer, helped out. Heartbreakers Mike Campbell (guitars) and Benmont Tench (keyboards), along with Smokey Hormel (guitars), Matt Sweeney (guitars) and Johnny Polonsky (guitars) provided the musical accompaniment to Cash's vocals.

"We felt Johnny's presence during the whole process through to the end," says Rubin. "It felt like he was directing the proceedings, and I know that the musicians all felt that as well.

"Almost all of the songs were cut solely to Johnny's original vocal tracks. The musicians all keyed off his voice and were playing to him, supporting the emotion of his performance. More than once, Fergie and I would look at each other and say, 'Johnny would love this,' because it was so good and so different from anything we'd done before. We knew he would be excited by what was happening."

Sony/BMG will reissue The Johnny Cash Children's Album, with new liner notes from John Carter Cash and four tracks that weren't included on the record when it was first released in 1975, on May 16. Personal File, a collection of Cash recordings from the '70s and '80s that weren't discovered until after his death, will follow on May 23.

Here are the songs on Personal File:

Disc One:

"The Letter Edged In Black"
"There's A Mother Always Waiting At Home"
"The Engineer's Dying Child"
"My Mother Was A Lady"
"The Winding Stream"
"Far Away Places"
"Galway Bay"
"When I Stop Dreaming"
"Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes"
"I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen"
"Missouri Waltz"
"Louisiana Man"
"Paradise"
"I Don't Believe You Wanted To Leave"
"Jim, I Wore A Tie Today"
"Saginaw, Michigan"
"When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below)"
"Girl In Saskatoon"
"The Cremation Of Sam McGee"
"Tiger Whitehead"
"It's All Over"
"A Fast Song"
"Virgie"
"I Wanted So"
"It Takes One To Know Me"

Disc Two:

"Seal It In My Heart And Mind"
"Wildwood In The Pines"
"Who At My Door Is Standing"
"Have Thine Own Way Lord"
"Lights of Magdala"
"If Jesus Ever Loved A Woman"
"The Lily Of The Valley"
"Have A Drink Of Water"
"The Way Worn Traveler"
"Look Unto The East"
"Matthew 24 (Is Knocking At The Door)"
"The House Is Falling Down"
"One Of These Days I'm Gonna Sit Down And Talk To Paul"
"What On Earth (Will You Do for Heaven's Sake)"
"My Children Walk In The Truth"
"No Earthly Good"
"Sanctified"
"Lord, Lord, Lord"
"What Is Man"
"Over The Next Hill (We'll Be Home)"
"A Half A Mile A Day"
"Farther Along"
"Life's Railway To Heaven"
"In The Sweet Bye And Bye"