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American VI: Ain’t No Grave
American VI: Ain’t No Grave is an album by Johnny Cash released posthumously on February 23, 2010 on American Recordings and Lost Highway Records. Its release was three days before Cash’s 78th birthday. The tracks were recorded during the same sessions as American V: A Hundred Highways (2006), which took place during the final months of Cash’s life.
Los Angeles Times writer Ann Powers called it “Cash’s hospice record” and lauded his musicianship. MSN Music’s Robert Christgau called the album “both the grimmest and the most hopeful” of “those nearness-of-death albums” that in his mind include Mississippi John Hurt’s Last Sessions (1972), Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind (1997), Warren Zevon’s The Wind (2003), and Neil Young’s Prairie Wind (2005). Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that “death remains the big subject on VI, and Rubin magnifies the drama.” The Daily Telegraph’s Andrew Perry dubbed it “Cash’s final, life-affirming masterpiece”.
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.
Pitchfork Media’s Stephen M. Deusner criticized Rick Rubin’s production, stating “Ain’t No Grave isn’t really Cash’s farewell as much as it is Rubin’s memorial mixtape”.