WHAT a moving valediction from the country great, who died in September 2003.

By his own reckoning, this was his favourite album - "Me and the guitar, and that's all there was in it and all there was to it. I'm so glad that I got that done."

With stark but lovely simplicity, Cash sat down with his guitar to record old hymns and gospel songs, picking from an old book called Heavenly Highway Hymns, old church songs and country gospel songs his mother had played throughout her life.

No one song stands out; or, rather, they all do. From Where We'll Never Grow Old and I Shall Not Be Moved, through I Am A Pilgrim and Do Lord to I'll Fly Away and Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies, Cash sings in that gravel-pit voice, supported only by the solid strumming of his guitar.

The whole experience is made all the more stirring and emotional by the realisation that Cash knew he was on the way out as he got the job gladly done.

Updated: 09:32 Thursday, May 20, 2004