American V: A Hundred Highways

Track listing

1. "Help Me" (Larry Gatlin) – 2:51
2. "God's Gonna Cut You Down" (Traditional) – 2:38
3. "Like the 309" (Johnny Cash) – 4:35
4. "If You Could Read My Mind" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 4:30
5. "Further On Up the Road" (Bruce Springsteen) – 3:25
6. "On the Evening Train" (Hank Williams) – 4:17
7. "I Came to Believe" (Johnny Cash) – 3:44
8. "Love's Been Good to Me" (Rod McKuen) – 3:18
9. "A Legend in My Time" (Don Gibson) – 2:37
10. "Rose of My Heart" (Hugh Moffatt) – 3:18
11. "Four Strong Winds" (Ian Tyson) – 4:34
12. "I'm Free from the Chain Gang Now" (Lou Herscher, Saul Klein) – 3:00

Song information

As with the other American series albums, the album includes covers, originals, and a re-recording of a song. The originals on this album are "I Came to Believe" and "Like the 309", the latter of which was the last song Cash ever wrote before passing away. Recorded on August 21, 2003, "Like the 309" was the next-to-last song Cash ever recorded; the last being "Engine 143" which was recorded for a Carter Family tribute album produced by John Carter Cash.

The album takes its name from a lyric on the track "Love's Been Good to Me" by Rod McKuen; the opening verse begins (emphasis added):

I have been a rover
I have walked alone
Hiked a hundred highways
Never found a home

Future releases

The liner notes of Unearthed, a box set composed of outtakes from the first four entries in Cash's American series, claim "around 50" songs were recorded during the American V sessions before Cash's death on September 12, 2003. However, to date only two albums worth of material have been released, including American VI: Ain't No Grave, which was released in February 2010. In March 2014, Cash's son John Carter Cash, promoting the release of Out Among the Stars, a collection of recently unearthed recordings from the early 1980s, confirmed that "three or four albums" worth of unreleased material exists from the American sessions, with Rubin confirming that at least one additional album -- a follow-up to Unearthed -- is planned for future release.

Personnel

Cash engineer David "Fergie" Ferguson (assisted by Jimmy Tittle) and Rubin oversaw the completion of the recordings. Other musicians on the album include keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarists Mike Campbell, Smoky Hormel, Matt Sweeney and Jonny Polonsky.

Musicians

Additional personnel

Chart performance

American V: A Hundred Highways topped the Billboard 200 with the album. It was his first No. 1 album since 1969's Johnny Cash at San Quentin with 88,000 copies sold in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.