A long-lost album by the late Johnny Cash will finally see the light of day on June 28 via Mercury Nashville/UMe.
Titled Songwriter, the set is historically significant because it was the last session Cash did prior to joining forces with acclaimed producer Rick Rubin for the career-reviving American series of albums that brought Cash some much-deserved late-career acclaim prior to and after his death in 2003.
The song "Well Alright" will be available for streaming today (April 23). The album will be available for streaming and will also be released on CD and vinyl.
The recordings the comprise Songwriter were cut in 1993 when Cash found himself without a record deal after his nearly four-decade long career. He recorded an album's worth of demos at LSI Studios in Nashville. At the time, the studio was owned by Cash's son-in-law Mike Daniels and his daughter Rosey, and Cash picked the studio to give them a financial boost while he recorded some new material.
Although the recordings from those sessions were shelved, three decades later John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, discovered the recordings and removed the backing tracks to leave only Cash's vocals and acoustic guitar. With the assistance of co-producer David "Fergie" Ferguson, the pair recruited musicians who had played with Cash -- including guitarist Marty Stuart, late bassist Dave Roe, drummer Pete Abbott and others to record some new backing tracks at the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tenn.
"Nobody plays Cash better than Marty Stuart, and Dave Roe of course played with dad for many years," said John Carter said in a statement. "The musicians that came in were just tracking with dad, you know, recording with dad, just as, in the case of Marty and Dave, they had many times before, so they knew his energies, his movements, and they let him be the guide. It was just playing with Johnny once again, and that's what it was. That was the energy of the creation."
Special guests on the album include Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, who plays a guitar solo on "Spotlight," and solo artist and recent Eagles recruit Vince Gill, who sings on "Poor Valley Girl." Also, Cash's Highwaymen bandmate, the late Waylon Jennings, sang on a pair of songs from the original sessions, "I Love You Tonite" and "Like a Soldier."
The reconstituted album includes 11 tracks written by Cash that showcase his songwriting prowess.
"It's not about selling Johnny Cash, he would be doing that himself," Carter said in a statement. "I'm grateful that this record is here, even if it was only for me, because it reminds me of who my father was, and I do believe there are people out there that knew him on somewhat of a level that I did, that will be just as touched. But I also believe that there are people out there that have never heard my father's music that will find new interest in hearing this, hearing this album and hearing my father's voice. I hope that gleans some curiosity in some people where they dig further, and they discover more because there's a lot to see within those pages."
