Come November 17, the new edition of Johnny Cash at San Quentin will be pounding through my stereo. Columbia/Legacy records is set to release the new album, which will include thirteen previously unissued tracks and a DVD commentary. BreakPoint WorldView featured a great article by Steve Beard on what made Cash and his music so riveting.

Cash wrote songs the man on the street—or perhaps more appropriately, the guy hanging out in the alley—could relate to. He loved prisoners, the working man, and the welfare mother—those found on the outskirts. His songwriting orbited around the universal human condition of sin and redemption, murder and grace, darkness and light. What you saw was what you got with Cash. When he sang, you could almost taste the hillbilly moonshine, smell the gunpowder of a smoking revolver, and feel the drops of blood off the thorny crown of a crucified Christ.

Read more on "How the Man Came Around."