I suppose many "elitists" out there will criticize me for choosing an album of (mostly) cover songs of other artists as the best Johnny Cash album, but as a personal preference, this is my favorite of his output; and it is a testament to the power of his music that he can make cover songs his own.

For me, the highlight of this album in particular is "Hurt." I never cared much for the Nine Inch Nails version, but Cash does it justice. Trent Reznor cried when he first saw the music video (while working with Zach de la Rocha in the recording studio), and after I first saw the video, it left quite an impression - it's hard to put a finger on what, exactly, the music (and video) does to you, but it's a powerful statement.

This was Cash's farewell and it's a fitting bookend to a lifelong legacy that will be remembered for years to come.

This CD is filled with great songs. They are not the same kind of songs so you have variety when you listen to this CD. Some of my favorites are Hurt, The Man Comes Around, and Desperado. I just recently watched the video, Hurt. It was so amazing that it will bring tears to your eyes.

2 Thumbs UP!

Before "Walk the Line," I barely knew anything about Johnny Cash, except my father used to talk about him as the ultimate 1960's bada__s. But during the movie, when I heard the lyric "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die," I instantly became a fan. I'd never heard a lyric so mean, and yet so honest. Since then I've become a huge Cash fan.
American IV was Cash's last album, made in 2000. Cash's imitable gravelly baritone voice has become deeper, more tremulous, but strangely this makes him sound better than ever. He sings everything with such sincerity, and tremulousness comes across as naked emotion. Old favorites like "Give My Love to Rose" have never sounded more heartrending. Cash's cover of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" will literally take your breath away. His duet with Fiona Apple of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" is an unlikely duet is another favorite of mine.
Other favorites of mine:
- "I Hung My Head," a cover of the Sting song
- "Sam Hall," proving that all the years after "Folsom Prison Blues" Cash has lost none of his fierce outlaw bite. "I smashed his head and left him dead." Whoa.
- "In My Life," Cash's cover of the famous Beatles tune.
- "We'll Meet Again," the final track on the disc. If you are a movie buff you'll recognize this as the song at the very end of "Dr. Strangelove." One of Cashs's greatest gifts was underlining the important lyrics. In this case, "we'll meet again, *don't know where, don't know when*", suddenly makes this cheery oldie chilling.

But there is literally not a single bad track on this remarkable cd. If forced to choose, I'd say "Danny Boy" was perhaps not really suited to Cash. It makes me angry that Cash is described so often as a "country music" singer, because he really has nothing in common with the country music singers of today. Cash was always a man with his guitar, singing about love, death, murder, god, redemption, and social injustice (he was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War as well as an ardent critic of the United States' policies towards Native Americans). He wasnt just a country music icon, he was an American icon.