Avalanche danger!

Phew ... Most of all would I this album simply review out of competition, without evaluation. The confusing of "A Hundred Highways" is in fact that it does not shake due to his musical finesse to the soul, but because - yes, that must be clarified here. Where does this effect?

As for the overall impression, so I feel at Muhammed Ali in 1996 remembers that, by Parkinson's disease mutates into a physical wreck, it somehow managed to ignite the Olympic flame and thus probably lostrat an inward Avalanche not only with me.

But it does not help - here a review of the musical quality is required. Not simply because Johnny Cash had taken his wife heard the death; who believed Cash was the last given already in "The Man Comes Around", the experienced here the unimaginable increase. Sounded the Man in Black 2002 like a man who is fighting a losing battle, and does not cease to hope, so now you can feel that here one knows that he has lost, and still carries on. Yet Cash continues - but not out of self-deception, but out of self-respect. Maybe that is what characterizes this album. Because musically it does not have as much potential as the two seemingly bursting with creativity predecessor "Solitary Man" and "The Man Comes Around" - the direct comparison shows how much Cash's influence on the final mix of those two albums must have been: Here, in "A Hundred Highways", missing the posthumous Johnny Cash blends instinct and his courage to take unusual.

It can also be expressed as follows: The subsequent tracks are often too piously; a little more would have been the musicians have let rip. After all, they all belong to the first set. More courage to corners and edges, the twinkle in his eye, and sometimes more courage to have been good for the blends pathos. Cash had this courage always, so why so fussy? Sometimes the musicians dare a little more - and wins the Song to Profile, and Cash's voice gets the upper hand.

Undoubtedly Cash's often dominated frighteningly fragile voice the album. He could also convince a terminally ill man who just put his frailty targeted one, can they act unadorned; an almost unimaginable effort and an irrepressible will to stand behind it. Hard to believe that the life of man sprayed once you listen to here with the unshakable bass and traumwandlerisch secure intonation, but it is so. And the strange thing is: This does not pitiful or pathetic, but as the manifesto of the necessary defying the world.

Most impressive are surely the first tracks with their strong blues and Spiritual Impact:

"Help Me" has actually become something of a blues cry for help. "Tired of walking all alone" 'which is believed immediately. Here fits the restrained, atmospheric instrumentation.

"God's Gonna Cut You Down" is one of the strongest songs on the CD, insistent Spiritual Chanting with intense blues strike, dominated by rhythmic clapping. On top of an incredible energy performance of Johnny Cash, a true rebellion.

Finally: "Like the 309". Sure, who had taken on board, is Cash's last song ever, a few days before his death. But not the piety enjoins a special appreciation of this song, but his class - cash here enrolled a blues with black-humored sprinklings on the body which he sings remarkably powerful.

This clenched blues intro is followed by a ghostly "If You Could Read My Mind". Cash makes again a nice song to Monument - this time actually precisely because he barely rausbringt a tone. He does not spare himself, deliberately one the exhausted voice. "The hero wants to be me, and heroes Often fall" - now it is clear what is meant ...

Convincing is also "I Came to Believe", almost a capella singing (cash failed not all songs the voice). Here the restrained instrumentation fits perfectly.

Finally, "Rose of My Heart" - a heartwarming response to June Carter's "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone" from their last album "Wildwood Flower" in 2003 will, it seems to me. - "A flower not faded, not falling apart" ... also a way to say goodbye.

"A Legend in My Time" and "Four Strong Winds" are simply beautiful. Both songs have something quiet, Abandoned, Dignified per se; unspectacular, you may, but certainly not boring. However, they suffer as a few others, unmentioned here bothers to the overly pious instrumentation, to be much smoother harmony, and also the background Fiedelei often.

But the final ... the final! "I'm Free from the Chain Gang Now" - which is not only the final point, because it's the last song on the CD. Cash goes with this classic again back to the roots, imperturbable, with relatively steady voice. A worthy finale.

Of course, one may wonder whether it was legitimate to publish this largely posthumously produced album. To speculate on the will of the artist is idle. Nothing speaks louder intentions towards Rick Rubin. The purchase is not a moral issue; one wants to know, and sounds to it, the other does not. Both have good reasons.

However: Eventually you have to be an end to the aftermath. This CD would be a more than worthy final.

How now rate this album? What it together at its core, is not necessarily only his musical class. Or is it? At first it seems more likely to be due to something I would provisionally be described as "documentary character" or "document of dignity". Yet Cash achieved this impression with musical means, it is precisely because of his exhausted voice, or was it her defiance. The initial question is still awaiting the answer. But the album has a special place in my collection.