I've Never Heard Anything Like This In My Life

I recently discovered Johnny Cash's "American V: A Hundred Highways" and I haven't stopped listening to it for close to a week.

The 12 songs on this CD are among the last that Cash recorded before his death on September 12, 2003, at the age of 71. From the opening track, Larry Gatlin's "Help Me" to the prophetic closer, "I'm Free from the Chain Gang Now," a re-recording of a song written by Lewis Herscher and Saul Klein in 1932, that Cash first recorded in 1962, every single second of this recording is a gem and the most fitting epitaph to the memory of the man and the legend that he deserves to be. Other stand-out tracks here include a gorgeous cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind," and "Like the 309," the last song Cash ever wrote.

Discovering and enjoying new music has been a constant in my life since I purchased my first 45, The Crystals' "He's A Rebel," in 1962. At one time I had over 3,000 LPs and close to that many 45s, and at present I have over 13,000 songs in my iTunes library - and, still, after all these years, I am amazed and I feel blessed beyond belief when I get to discover something new that rocks my world. This is one of those times. I listen to these tracks over and over again and just keep remarking to myself "I've never heard anything like this in my life." For someone who has listened to a lot of music, that is quite a statement!

This is what I call a "perfect album," my definition of which is that this is something you can't help but listen to from beginning to end, as opposed to just a track or two at a time. There are a lot of other "perfect albums" in my collection, ranging from Cindy Bullens' "Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth" to The Grateful Dead's "American Beauty" to The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" to Laura Nyro's "Eli and the 13th Confession," and I am so glad to be able to add this amazing piece of work to that elite group, where it deserves to be.

Now, I begin the happy chore of purchasing the other four albums from his "American" collection.

Thanks for listening, enjoy yourselves!

Kenny A.