When Johnny Cash’s son discovered a treasure trove of unreleased demos from the Man in Black, he realised his find would need to be shared wide.
Arriving Friday (June 28), those gems are packaged in Songwriter (via Mercury Nashville UMe) — conceptualised and organised by John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash.
Seasoned engineer David “Fergie” Ferguson stripped back the demos, focusing on Cash’s vocal and guitar parts. The pair then lovingly added new and unearthed parts from longtime Cash collaborators like guitarist Marty Stuart, late bassist Dave Roe, drummer Pete Abbott, and a few new faces too.
“Nobody plays Cash better than Marty Stuart, and Dave Roe, of course, played with Dad for many years,” comments John Carter.
“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.”
Cash passed away more than 20 years ago, leaving behind a formidable legacy.
With over 90 million records sold worldwide, Cash was a bona fide hitmaker. His influence and style continues to resonate.
Since his death in September 2003 at the age of 71, four posthumous albums have been released. Songwriter is his fifth, and 72nd studio album overall.
Its tracks were recorded at LSI Studios in Nashville in 1993 when Cash was between contracts. He’d wrapped up his double-decade deal with Columbia Records and was yet to ink one of his most critically acclaimed partnerships, connecting him with Rick Rubin and his American Recordings label.
Songwriter also features contributions from the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings, Ana Cristina Cash, Matt Combs, Mike Rojas, Russ Pahl, Sam Bacco, Kerry Marx, and Harry Stinson.
Many of the record’s collaborators were invited to the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, the famed location where Cash spent much of his later years.
Johnny Cash at the Cash Cabin, May 1987. Photo credit: Alan Messer.
Speaking to Music Connection, John Carter said: “We started with my father’s voice and, in some cases, his acoustic guitar, and began building on it from there. We added Marty Stuart, Dave Roe, Pete Abbot, Russ Pahl, my son Joseph Cash, my wife Ana Cristina Cash, and more. We kept Waylon Jennings’ vocals on two of the tracks and added Dan Auerbach and Vince Gill to a couple of tracks. Choosing the musicians was easy, it truly was.”
Just two tracks are available to stream currently; Songwriter’s lead single, “Well Alright”, a cheeky paean to wild rockabilly and love at a laundromat, and “Spotlight”, a gentle yet austere soul-barer featuring a guitar solo by the Black Keys’ Auerbach.
Elsewhere, Vince Gill provides vocals on “Poor Valley Girl”, and the late Waylon Jennings appears on two songs, “I Love You Tonite” and “Like a Soldier”.
Clocking in at eleven songs, few critics have had the opportunity to unpack and evaluate the collection. “I wanted it to be songs that mostly people hadn’t heard and that paid close attention to who he was as a songwriter and who he was as an American voice,” John Carter explains.
Music runs deep through the Cash family. The country legend’s daughters, Rosanne and Cindy, made their mark on the 1974 album Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me, and the shared musical legacy he left with wife June is the stuff of legend.
That partnership has been well documented over the years. Cash’s 1975 autobiography, “Man in Black”, sold over a million copies, offering an unflinching look at his battles with addiction and his quest for redemption. The 1986 follow-up, “Man in White”, was also met with critical and commercial success.
Cash’s journey from a humble cotton farm in Arkansas to becoming a great American voice, was told in the 2005 biopic Walk The Line, for which Reese Witherspoon, as June Carter, collected an Oscar. Joaquin Phoenix, as Cash, was nominated for an Academy Award.
The awards flowed throughout his career. In 1980, at the age of 48, Cash became the youngest person ever inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. This was followed by his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, solidifying his status as a cross-genre icon.
The pivotal moment in his later career came in 1993 when he signed with American Recordings. The 1996 album Unchained, produced by Rubin, won a Grammy and marked the first time Cash was played on alt-rock radio. Rubin was behind the desk for Cash’s haunting cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” released in 2002. The song and its iconic music video became emblematic of this late-career resurgence.
Long before he took the stage, and long before his tumultuous marriage to his first wife Vivian Liberto, Cash was crafting lyrics with the same gritty authenticity that characterised his storied life.
A genre-crosser and all-star collaborator with acts like Bob Dylan and “supergroup” The Highwaymen (Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson), Cash was at home playing folk, blues, rockabilly and rock. Across multiple Christmas albums, live recordings, gospel albums, and even two live performance records from prison (At Folsom Prison and Johnny Cash at San Quentin) Cash played a hand at bringing country music to the mainstream.
In his interview with Music Connection, Carter Cash said the release of Songwriter is one of posterity, to ensure future generations understand the breadth and depth of his famous father.
“Bob Dylan says [Cash is] one of the greatest writers of all of American written music and I agree. I want to put that in the forefront. His writing voice specifically is a certain voice, that I think if America wants to know their history, that’s a good place to look. Johnny Cash is definitely one true voice that we can listen to, specifically to his writings.”
Johnny Cash – Songwriter Tracklisting
CD/DIGITAL
1. Hello Out There
2. Spotlight
3. Drive On
4. I Love You Tonite
5. Have You Ever Been to Little Rock?
6. Well Alright
7. She Sang Sweet Baby James
8. Poor Valley Girl
9. Soldier Boy
10.Sing It Pretty Sue
11. Like A Soldier
VINYL
Side A
1. Hello Out There
2. Spotlight
3. Drive On
4. I Love You Tonite
5. Have You Ever Been To Little Rock?
Side B
1. Well Alright
2. She Sang Sweet Baby James
3. Poor Valley Girl
4. Soldier Boy
5. Sing It Pretty Sue
6. Like A Soldier
