Unreleased Johnny Cash album, 'Songwriter', is set for a posthumous release after being reworked by his son John Carter Cash.
Johnny Cash's posthumous Songwriter album is set for release on June 28
The 11 songs, which were recorded as demos in 1993, have been stripped back to just Cash's signature bass-baritone voice and acoustic guitar by his and the late June Carter Cash's 54-year-old son.
Cash died, aged 71, in 2003, and he had recorded the tracks at LSI Studios in Nashville a decade prior to his passing.
The tapes were abandoned when Cash decided to record ‘American Recordings’ with super-producer and longtime collaborator Rick Rubin, however, the re-recordings of ‘Drive On’ and ‘Like A Soldier’ were used on that record.
His son said in a statement: “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.
“One of my most important focuses in the past 10 years is to make sure that history, as best that I can possibly, is to give history the opportunity to notice him as the great writer he is. Bob Dylan says he’s 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.”
Cash and Rubin’s recording engineer, David R. Ferguson, joined forces with John to select musicians who previously worked with the late country legend to appear on the record.
He said: “I would think Johnny would say what he said about every record that I worked on with him, every record I think he ever made, when he got to the end of it, he always said, ‘I think it’s the best record I’ve ever made.'
“You could count on that. I could just hear him say that. I think he’d be really proud of it.”
Among the players are guitarist Marty Stuart, late bassist Dave Roe – who passed away last year aged 71 - and drummer Pete Abbott.
Singing their praises, John added: “Nobody plays Cash better than Marty Stuart, and Dave Roe of course played with dad for many years.
“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 joyous first track, 'Well Alright', is out now.
Among the collection is the poignant number 'I Love You Tonite' in honour of his wife, whilst 'Like A Soldier' chronicles his addiction battle.
'Songwriter' is released on June 28.
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