Johnny Cash: American 111: Solitary Man (Columbia)

There is something overwhelmingly sad and yet paradoxically heroic about this album, the final in his American trilogy series produced by Rich Rubin. Cash's is one of the defining voices of our time and his forthright attitude to love, death and life have made him a giant among his peers. Now afflicted by a neurological illness, his voice may be shaken but his resolution remains undaunted and these acoustic settings of songs such as U2's One, Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down, Will Oldham's I See A Darkness and the traditional Wayfaring Stranger are moving both in their execution and their meaning. It is hard not to see this collection of songs in the context of his life and his current predicament. Yet there is no self-pity. Not that we ever expected any.