Johnny Cash is back with a new album. Wait what? The Man in Black may be gone for decades now, but he's still got some material you haven't heard.
As the trailer for the new album Songwriter explains, "In the early 90's, Johnny Cash recorded an album of songwriting demos. 30 years later, the songs were taken to the Cash cabin, a hallowed place for Johnny, and stripped back to his vocals and guitar." So technically, it's old material, but it will be new to all of us.
Cash recorded 11 songs in 1993, which he never released. Now, these long-buried songs will finally join the singer's catalog. The Cash Estate had to work with current day artists to finish them. While the album won't come out until June 28, you can check out the first song below. It's titled "Well Alright."
Lyrics include: "I met her at the laundromat, she was washing extra hot / I said don't you need a little help with that big load you got?"
The album features Vince Gill as well as the Black Keys. Marty Stuart, Pete Abbott, and Dave Roe also worked on the album to finish it. Each song features vocals by Cash, meaning it should be easy to slot these songs into your playlists.
New Johnny Cash Songs
"Nobody plays Cash better than Marty Stuart, and Dave Roe of course played with dad for many years," John Carter Cash told The Guardian. "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 album will feature a love song for his late wife June Carter Cash, titled "I Love You Tonite." Cash recorded the songs for the album between recording contracts. However, he quickly became busy with American Recordings and never returned to them. He passed away in 2003. The opening title "Hell Out There" features the lyrics: "Hello out there, this is planet Earth calling calling calling calling calling / Hello out there, our net worth is falling falling falling falling falling." Meanwhile, "Like a Soldier" focuses on Cash's drug addiction. "It's something that that he wrote after his first stint in a recovery centre - he felt like he was like a soldier getting over a war," John Carter Cash said.
Songwriter Track List:
01 Hello Out There
02 Spotlight [ft. Dan Auerbach]
03 Drive On
04 I Love You Tonite
05 Have You Ever Been to Little Rock?
06 Well Alright
07 She Sang "Sweet Baby James"
08 Poor Valley Girl
09 Soldier Boy
10 Sing It Pretty Sue
11 Like A Soldier
