Label
	American
	Release
	2004
	Artist
	Johnny Cash
	Rating

Johnny Cash had lived his whole life with the dream of releasing a pure gospel album, one that included the songs that his mother sang when he was young. In the booklet Cash claims that this album was put together for his mother and each song was handpicked by himself to represent the music that meant so much to him and his family. He sings each song alone with an acoustic guitar and no other instruments or sounds. It is pure gospel music sang in Cash’s unmistakable style and with more emotion than any other recording I’ve heard.

I’m not religious and I hadn’t heard most of the songs on this album before, but I have time for good quality gospel music and that is what this is. I can’t therefore really comment on the song selection, except to say I can see why Johnny chose them. Some of the songs have even deeper emotional meaning to Johnny Cash. Let The Lower Lights Be Burning was the last song sung with his father while he lay dying, a couple more were sung at his brother’s funeral, whilst others are just some of his favourites.

The sound quality is obviously exceptional, not that you’d expect less from American. It only misses out on  five stars because I still prefer the country style of his other American albums. However, this was Johnny Cash’s favourite album that he had recorded in his career, and I can certainly see why.