I am Kyle's self-indulgence

"There ain't no grave can hold my body down" is the line that opens what is presumably the final album of new material from Johnny Cash. Like so many of the songs from his last two albums, it takes on extra layers of meaning in light of its release six years after his passing. Cash's work with producer Rick Rubin was so fruitful that we have now been blessed with not one, but two posthumous releases. Not even the grave can silence Johnny Cash.

This album is similar in theme and tone to Cash's previous release, A Hundred Highways, which is natural, since the songs for both releases come from the same sessions. Here we are given more musings on death and hope, recorded after the death of June Carter Cash and during the time when Johnny's health was declining.

Rick Rubin has again foregone the duets and big arrangements found earlier in the American Recordings series and has opted to accompany Cash's singing only with spare guitar and piano arrangements. I like this a lot. I think Cash sounds best when there are no guest singers or overproduction to get in the way of his voice, which here sounds so fragile and personal.

I feel like the music of Johnny Cash for the last eight years has just been a long series of goodbyes. The Man Comes Around, Cash's last album released before his death, closes with "We'll Meet Again," which only took on greater significance after his passing. Then the first posthumous release, A Hundred Highways, ends with "I'm Free from the Chain Gang Now," which was just about a perfect way to think of the death of a man who sang the songs of the oppressed and downtrodden.

Now, for a final farewell, Ain't No Grave closes with an unusual selection: "Aloha ʻOe," a traditional Hawaiian song of farewell. But as one reviewer pointed out, "aloha" also means affection, love, peace, compassion, and mercy, all things valued and represented in the man's music. It may seem redundant to bid farewell to the man on three consecutive releases, but I really don't mind when the goodbyes sound so sweet. Besides, I've learned by now that we probably still haven't heard the last of Johnny Cash.