Johnny Cash's final song to appear on new album

NEW YORK - Like the 309, the last song written by Johnny Cash before his death, will be included on the album American V: A Hundred Highways.

Due July 4 via American Recordings/Lost Highway, the album was recorded with producer Rick Rubin in the months leading up to Cash's September 2003 passing.

"These songs are Johnny's final statement," Rubin said in a statement. "They are the truest reflection of the music that was central to his life at the time. This is the music that Johnny wanted us to hear."

A song utilising one of Cash's favourite subjects, trains, Like the 309 is one of two original songs on the disc. The other, I Came to Believe, was written and recorded earlier in his career about addiction and salvation through a higher power.

The balance of the set includes such songs as Bruce Springsteen's Further On (Up the Road), Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind, Hank Williams' On the Evening Train, Rod McKuen's Love's Been Good To Me and the traditional spiritual God's Gonna Cut You Down.

"I think that American V may be my favourite of all of the albums in the American series," Rubin said. "It's different from the others, it has a much different character. I think that this is as strong an album as Johnny ever made."

Beginning with 1994's American Recordings, the series of stripped-down recordings brought Cash to a new audience and sparked interest in the country legend's career. The four albums have sold 2.6 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. American IV: The Man Comes Around has been the best received, with more than 1.5 million copies sold. The 2002 disc, which featured a popular cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, peaked at No. 22 on The Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Top Country Albums chart after Cash's death.

Cash began work on American V the day after completing American IV, according to Rubin, using the process to help him navigate the period after his wife June Carter Cash's May 2003 death.

"Johnny said that recording was his main reason for being alive," Rubin said. "And I think it was the only thing that kept him going, the only thing he had to look forward to."

- REUTERS