GREAT RICK RUBIN INTERVIEW RE: JOHNNY CASH AMERICAN VI

Really interesting interview with Rick Rubin, talking about Johnny Cash's American VI: Ain't No Grave with New York magazine. What interested me most was his comparing the end of the album - the traditional Hawaiian song "Aloha Oe," to the song that ended American IV: The Man Comes Around. That album ended with "We'll Meet Again," and featured backing vocals by Johnny's friends, family and employees.  Johnny thought that that would be the last song on his last album, his health wasn't in great shape at that point. But the day after the album was done, Rick asked him if he wanted to start working on American V. So all the sessions they worked on at that point made up the final two albums.  This time, he really did know his time was running out, hence "Aloha Oe" ending what actually was the final album.

CELEBRATE THE MAN IN BLACK

This Friday would have been Johnny Cash 's 78th birthday, and as I've mentioned, there's a group asking people to wear black to commemorate the occasion. Another group is celebrating the man with a movement to get Columbia Records to re-release Bitter Tears, Johnny's 1964 album about our country's gross mistreatment of Native Americans. Read more about that at Reuters.

Meanwhile, as I write about this, I'm listening to what is most likely the final Johnny Cash album, American VI: Ain't No Grave.  Producer Rick Rubin may well have saved the best of the American Recordings sessions for last.

BLACK CELEBRATION: JOHNNY CASH'S BIRTHDAY

There is an official facebook group organizing people who want to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the birth of Johnny Cash on February 26. The page was put together by Lost Highway Records, as part of the promotion behind behind Johnny's final album, American VI: Ain't No Grave. The facebook page is also having a contest: if you post pictures of yourself wearing black, you are entered into a contest to win the new album, as well as the 5 CD box set, Unearthed, collecting tons of unreleased gems from Johnny's American Recordings era. It is a really awesome box set, I have it, it's totally worth getting.

JOHNNY CASH - AMERICAN VI?

I read on Rolling Stone (who read it on Twenty-Four Bit) that Amazon is now listing an import version of Johnny Cash's American VI: Ain't No Grave, with a release date of February 23. A few years ago I interviewed John Carter Cash, Johnny's son, who said that there were probably two albums of material from the Rick Rubin sessions left. Twenty-Four Bit has the (possible) tracklist, of particular interest to me was "For The Good Times," a song written by Kris Kristofferson and covered by Al Green.

Other than Bob Dylan, who dissed Cash's American Recordings series in a recent Rolling Stone interview, I don't know anyone who doesn't like what Rick Rubin did with The Man In Black.  I love those albums, and look forward to hearing this one - maybe the last word on a great American artist.