All Songs Considered

Hey, just listened to the "Summer 2006 Preview" show on NPR All Song's Considered (click on the link to listen to the show) this afternoon. I was impressed primarily with two upcoming albums and both are from deceased artists, seems the living can't impress me today.

1. Rick Rubin is releasing the last (supposedly) installment in the American Recordings done by Johnny Cash. American V: A Hundred Highways will be released on 07.04.06 and contains the last songs ever recorded by Cash. The song "309" is reportedly the last song he wrote/recorded 2 weeks prior to his death. Cash's voice is haunting and failing throughout the song but, surprisingly still able to project a strength and fire which I hope is evident throughout the album. The whole album contains songs about death, which must of been looming quite largely on Cash's horizon at this point in his life.

2. Ali Farka Toure is a Malian guitarist who died of bone cancer earlier this year. It had been rumored that In the Heart of The Moon was his last recording available to us. The album Savane being released 07.25.06 is from the same Hotel Mande' Sessions in Bamako, Mali from mid-2004. The songs are all acoustic solo Ali Farka Toure from what I've heard so far. His deep & dark voice interjects Mali throughout the title track "Savane".

- Both albums have sample tracks available at the above All Song's Considered link. Back to the books.