Peter Steward's 

Johnny Cash comes to terms with mortality in the last CD recorded before and after his death. And with the subject matter and the resurgence of Cash-Mania thanks to the film "Walk the Line" it comes as a timely reminder of the only axiom that there's nothing certain in life except death and taxes.

Johnny is no longer concerned with the latter, but this album is anything but mawkish and, despite its depressing content, is somehow shot through with hope.

It includes the final song he wrote  "Like the 309". Many of the other songs foretells of Cash's imminent demise but others hark back to happier times and if the voice is slightly cracked and dusty, it only adds to the overall feel of a successful pre-cursor to the final voyage.

"On the Evening Train" tells the story of a widower watching his wife's coffin being loaded onto a train and has obvious overtones of the death of his wife June Carter.

In other songs he comes face to face with his maker and some of the titles such as "I'm Free From the Chain Gang Now" scarcely need explanation.

Away from the doom and gloom he  covers songs like Gordon Lightfoot's  "If You Could Read My Mind" and Rod McKuen's " Love's Been Good to Me" (from which the title A Hundred Highways comes) extremely well considering producer Rick Rubin had to record the album when Cash felt strong enough to sing.