By the Writers of Last Word Features

Johnny Cash: ‘American VI: Ain’t No Grave’ (American Recordings) ★★★★
“American VI” is the last album from Johnny Cash, recorded in the months preceding his Sept. 2003 death.

Produced by Rick Rubin, who first teamed with Cash in 1994, “American VI” again is set around an acoustic guitar and Cash’s voice. That iconic deep baritone is sometimes ragged, sometimes thin, sometimes rumbling; it’s the voice of an old man singing his last songs.

Brave, touching and, above all, honest and direct, Cash delivers a meditation on life and impending death that has rarely been heard, especially from an artist of his stature. Opening with the title cut, which Cash turns from an uplifting gospel song into a more sobering affair staring directly into the grave, “American VI” has a distinct theme and feel – that of a man looking over his life and anticipating his death. There’s optimism and uncertainty about the future. And there’s also a contentedness with the past, a reaffirmation of Cash’s Christian faith, and a revisiting of old songs, one of which is “Cool Water.”

Cash’s vocals are far from perfect. But there is a strength in their weakness; a moving determination to continue to communicate, taking his audience along through life’s final stage. With grace and dignity, “American VI” is a rarity befitting its one-of-a-kind creator.
John R. Cash couldn’t have gone out in better fashion. – L. Kent Wolgamott
Buy if you like: Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan

John Hiatt: ‘The Open Road’ (New West)
★★★★★
Buddy Miller may be Americana music’s main squeeze, but John Hiatt should be its pope—or at least, get a special lifetime brilliance award. He’s doing some of his best work in years —and his recent output has hardy been shabby.
This time, Hiatt’s not dealing with midlife crises or cataloging regrets. He’s accepting his sins, and finally trying to forgive himself. In “Go Down Swingin’,” he confesses he’s sometimes a scary predator, sometimes a timid field mouse, a perfect metaphor for the emotional roller-coaster some of us ride against our will. The bluesy “Like A Freight Train,” with its stripped-down slide and gorgeously anguished-as-ever high notes, stings like a king bee. “Don’t Talk About My Baby” is raw and dirty, elemental and rockin’, with wonderfully outrageous imagery that’s undoubtedly at least half true.
The real grabber, though, is “Movin’ On,” a song whose relaxed twang belies its lyrical wallop. Hiatt manages such perfect marriages of phrasing and music, there’s only one word for it: Genius.—Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: Neil Young, Alejandro Escovedo

Deadstring Brothers: ‘Sao Paulo’ (Bloodshot)
★★★ 1/2
With its slide guitars slipping through a dark, dessicated collision of country and blues, the Deadstring Brothers’ new CD, “Sao Paulo,” sounds a lot like “Exile on Main Street”-era Rolling Stones. There’s swaggering rock ‘n’ roll on “Sao Paulo,” a ramble through Houston that’s very Stones-ish. And “Adalee,” a song about an alluring woman, is reminiscent of the Stones, too.
Not that any of that is bad.  Singer and primary songwriter Kurt Marschke knows how to write an evocative, loose-limbed tune like “The River Song” or the drifting ballad “It’s A Shame,” and the classic guitars augmented with organ and piano sound never gets old. Perhaps the best measure of “Sao Paulo” is that it gets better and better, pulling you in deeper and deeper.
– L. Kent Wolgamott
Buy if you like: The Rolling Stones, Black Crowes

Flogging Molly: “Live at the Greek Theatre” (SideOneDummy)
★★★★
Flogging Molly always has been first and foremost a live band, able on a regular basis to stir up crowds with its rollicking Irish-infused brand of punkish rock. But it still took until now, six studio CDs later, for the band to put together a proper live release. And yet, if a live release may be a bit overdue, Flogging Molly did it right with “Live at the Greek.”
This package includes a DVD and two CDs, capturing the group in fine form at the Greek Theatre in the Los Angeles-bred band’s hometown. To be sure, the rowdy, rocking side of Flogging Molly is well represented during this 90-minute set, particularly as frontman Dave King cheerleads the audience and exorts his band to a spirited finish of the show.
But “Live at the Greek” also demonstrates how Flogging Molly has grown into a multi-faceted group by including several of the strong ballads and mid-tempo tunes (“Punch Drunk Grinning Soul”) that have populated recent studio albums. This gives the show the kind of ebb and flow that’s needed to sustain a full headlining set. The band also deserves credit for recording only one show and eschewing the after-the-fact in-studio fixes that flaw many live albums. The result is an honest document of a group that at this point in its career rivals any other act that has fused Irish and rock music.
– Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: The Pogues, Dropkick Murphys

Beth Thornley: ‘Wash U Clean’ (Stiff Hips Music)
★★★★
To say the least, Thornley is not just another of the many sensitive girl-with-guitar artists who dominate the female singer-songwriting genre. That much is abundantly clear from the first honking notes of the album-opening title track, a sassy tune that is about a perfect a mix as you’ll hear of hip-hop and catchy pop.
Nothing else on “Wash U Clean” offers quite the same genre-bending pleasures or originality, as Thornley shifts her focus, for the most part, to more conventional piano-based material. But she proves to be a compelling songwriter with a good deal of stylistic reach, nonetheless.
There’s sunny piano pop with a bit of an edge on “Still Can’t Hide”; dramatic full-bodied rock on “Bones”; and evocative piano-centric balladry on “Everyone Falls.” On “It’s Me,” Thornley strikes a melodically striking blend between rock and orchestral pop, while “You’re So Pony” again toys with spoken-style vocals, but this time in a sugar-sweet piano pop setting.
The boldest moments on “Wash U Clean” offer hope that Thornley will grow even more distinctive and original in the future. For now, she has created a thoroughly enjoyable album that marks her as one of 2010’s true artists to watch. – Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: Aimee Mann, KT Tunstall