Without A Net

New albums from... Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Cash?

By Mike Roe | March 12, 2010 | 2 comments

I opened my iTunes this morning and what do I see featured but a new album from... Jimi Hendrix. The album includes the original lineup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the recordings come mostly from the period following the release of 1968's Electric Ladyland.

Another recent major posthumous album was Johnny Cash's "American VI: Ain't No Grave." In a beautiful bit of serendipity, the title song seems like the perfect leadoff for a posthumous album as Cash sings "Ain't no grave gonna hold this body down." You can tell that the song selection is a bit weaker this time around as the available material from the recording sessions which also spawned "American V: A Hundred Highways" ran out.

We've had posthumously released albums for years, but it seems there's been an upsurge recently. I expect it's largely due to technology making it easier to salvage older recordings and the Internet making it easier to distribute and get the word out about this material.

Check out the title track from the new Hendrix album, "Valleys of Neptune":

Johnny Cash's "Ain't No Grave":