A new Johnny Cash album featuring previously unheard tracks by the US icon is set to be released later this year.
Cash, a crucial figure in country rock music known for songs like Hurt and Ring of Fire, died in 2003 but left behind a legacy of recorded material.
John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, recently rediscovered his father’s songs and has compiled them into an album.
The new album, Songwriter, features an array of songs written and recorded by Cash in 1993, more than 30 years ago.
The album, which spans 11 tracks, highlights Cash’s impressive song-writing talents and touches upon love, survival, and family.
As always, his resonant baritone voice gives the entire album a unique depth and soul familiar to his listeners.
One of the album's tracks, Well Alright, was released on streaming channels today to give fans a taste of what to expect.
A number of musicians were also enlisted by Cash’s son and the album’s co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson to breathe new life into Cash’s collection of songs.
As a result, the new album will also feature the recognsable musical talents of Marty Stuart, Dave Roe, and The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach.
“Nobody plays Cash better than Marty Stuart, and Dave Roe of course played with dad for many years,” Carter Cash said about collaborating with the artists on the album.
“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.”
The tracks that Cash recorded in 1993 were actually written over a period of many years and were deeply personal to the musician. One track, I Love You Tonite, was a love letter he had penned to his beloved wife June Carter Cash back in the ’70s.
He recorded the tracks at the LSI Studios in Nashville, a studio owned by his daughter, as he wanted to help out the family financially.
However, the project was eventually shelved and has sat for more than three decades before it was brought back to light by his son.
The album will be released on June 28. Pre-orders of the album will be available exclusively in the UK until midnight on April 26.
