Today, our Hi-Fi Friday recommendation is quite timely. On this the day that would have been the 78th birthday of Johnny Cash, we focus on his posthumous release, American VI. Released just this past Tuesday, American VI features some of the last recordings Cash made before his death in 2003. These songs serve as the last words from the man with a mythology larger than the physical stature he was known for.

American VI is really not the record I anticipated. I thought it might be full of songs of sorrow related to the death of his wife, June Carter Cash, months before these recordings. It was a pleasant discovery to find these songs full of hope and redemption. Songs that represent a man coming to terms with life. Songs that show a man ready to join his maker in Heaven.

While I don’t think this is my favorite of the American series, it is a nice final chapter to what has been one of the grandest regenerations of an artist that our time has seen. I’m hoping this really is the last release in this series. There isn’t a better way to go out.

-Zach