BURIED TREASURE: JOHNNY CASH, SONGWRITER

The previously unreleased Johnny Cash album Songwriter will see the light of day 6/28 via Mercury Nashville/UMe, 31 years after it was recorded.

In early 1993, Cash, who was then between contracts, went into Nashville’s LSI Studios and recorded a batch of songwriting demos of tunes he’d penned throughout his nearly four-decade career. Not long after the sessions, Cash met producer Rick Rubin, and the LSI recordings were shelved as the two kickstarted the vital final chapter of the Man in Black’s career.

Thirty years later, John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, rediscovered the songs and stripped them back to just Johnny’s vocals and acoustic guitar. He and co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson then brought a handpicked group of prior Cash collaborators, including guitarist Marty Stuart, the late bassist Dave Roe and drummer Pete Abbott, to the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, which had been Johnny’s sanctuary.

The 11-song collection displays the emotional breadth of Cash’s writing, as well as his sense of humor, delivered in his unmistakable voice. Waylon Jennings sang on two songs from the original session, “I Love You Tonite” and “Like a Soldier.” Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys plays a guitar solo on “Spotlight,” and Vince Gill sings on “Poor Valley Girl.”

Songwriter’s lead single, “Well Alright,” is an upbeat tune about finding love in, of all places, a laundromat. The track is prime Johnny Cash, harkening back to such ’50s classics as “Get Rhythm,” “Five Feet High and Rising,” “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “Big River.”