The Man in Black, Doctor V and acoustic American roots

Johnny Cash, American IV: The Man Comes Around, American/Lost Highway Records.

This is the fourth in a series of recordings Johnny Cash has cut with producer Rick Rubin, and it is perhaps Cash’s starkest offering yet. At nearly 71, suffering from diabetes, short of breath due to asthma, nearly blind from glaucoma and unable to tour any longer due to poor health, Cash had some difficulty getting through the sessions and sounds frail and uncertain at times. But those anomalies add emotion and feeling to the songs. As usual, Cash chooses material old and new, including Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” which is getting crossover rock radio airplay, and the desperate, apocalyptic “The Man Comes Around,” plus faves like “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “We’ll Meet Again.” If the listener feels a sense of impending doom hanging over the sessions, that would be an accurate description. Cash’s best material has always walked a fine line between redemption and sin, light and dark. He’s an American musical treasure, but like an aging lion, Johnny Cash can roar a little. Check out his new music while we still have him.

Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, Best Of, Arhoolie Records.

The Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band has been recording and touring on and off for over 22 years, producing traditional Cajun musical fair with style and grace. This is the best of their Arhoolie Records output and only further illustrates the trio’s mastery of this upbeat and uniquely American musical form. Much of it is sung in patois French and the instrumental work is stunning. arhoolie.com.

Various Artists, Twenty First St. Stomp, Yazooo Records.

Subtitled The Piano Blues of St. Louis, this disc is a great collection of St. Louis barrelhouse and blues piano from the 1920s and 30s, featuring rare performances by Stump Johnson, Henry Brown, Roosevelt Sykes, Eddie Miller, Robert Peeples, the Sparks Brothers and others. The sounds range from up-tempo stomps, to rags and blues, and it’s all worth hearing. Blues fans will appreciate Twenty First St. Stomp as an all-encompassing overview of styles that laid the groundwork for blues piano, as we know it today. yazoorecords.com.

Various Artists, The Land Where Blues Began, Rounder Records.

This is the true roots of blues as we know it, a compact disc whose selections were remotely recorded in 1941 and ’42, originally released to accompany the book of the same name written by folklorist and field recording maven Alan Lomax. What we have here is field hollers, work songs, hymns, ballads, sermons, acoustic blues, fife-and-drum music, tall tales and even barroom toasts, plus early recordings from Muddy Waters, Honeyboy Edwards, Big Bill Bronzy and Mississippi Fred McDowell. As per the previous disc, The Land Where The Blues Began provides the casual listener and blues purist alike with a scintillating picture of the genuine roots of the blues, our indigenous American musical art form. rounder.com.

Nick Curran & The Nitelifes, Doctor Velvet, Blind Pig Records.

Texas guitarist/singer/songwriter Nick Curran mines the vault of early R&B, rockabilly, jump blues and country for his latest and first release on Blind Pig Records. A traditionalist at heart, Curran approaches the material, both originals and selected covers, with no regard to modern day fad and fashion, preferring to stay true to the spirit of the styles he interprets. In addition, the production is suitably raw and “vintage” sounding, in keeping with the feel of the songs. Instead of singling out individual tracks, let’s just say Doctor Velvet is sure to satisfy both blues and rock fans. I dig it. You’ll like it too if your taste gravitates toward the sound of roots African/Americana.