Previously unreleased Johnny Cash recordings from 1993 are being released as a new album, Songwriter, that will be out June 28 via Mercury Nashville/UMe. The album was co-produced by John Carter Cash and David “Fergie” Ferguson, and features a newly recorded band of Marty Stuart, Dave Roe, Pete Abbott, and more, plus contributions from Dan Auerbach and Vince Gill.
“Nobody plays Cash better than Marty Stuart, and Dave Roe of course played with dad for many years,” says 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.”
“We just went rudimentary,” John adds about the approach to the record. “We went straight to the roots, as far as the sound, and tried not to overly enhance it. We built as if dad was in the room. That’s what we tried to do. Between the both of us, Fergie and I have spent thousands of hours with dad in the recording studio, so we just tried to act like he was there: WWJCD, right?”
The first single from the record is “Well Alright,” which is upbeat and playful, and very different from what Cash would do with Rick Rubin later in the ’90s. Listen to that below.
Songwriter:
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