Songwriter - Johnny Cash (2024)
Track List:
Hello Out There
Spotlight (feat. Dan Auerbach)
Drive On
I Love You Tonight
Have You Ever Been To Little Rock
Well Alright
She Sang Sweet Baby James
Poor Valley Girl
Soldier Boy
Sing It Pretty Sue
Like A Soldier
I was surprised when I saw a Johnny Cash single a few weeks ago
But then I saw it was related to an album that was going to be released. I mean the man passed over 20 years ago, glad he is still making music. So as I am apt to do I figured I would listen to the album when it came out. Today is the day!
I was expecting a Rick Ruben produced album thinking perhaps this was the more folky takes from those sessions. This isn’t the case. This is all original music that was recorded in the early 1990’s and wasn’t released for whatever reason. This is more traditional country Cash album. It was produced by his son and David Ferguson who is an audio engineer that did work on the American Recordings albums with Ruben.
I feel like there is a reason these songs were not released within Cash’s lifetime.
Hello Out There starts with a declaration of where we are on an intergalactic level and then segues to celebration about the return of Christ and his reign and glory for 1000 years.
Drive On deals with PTSD suffered by American Vietnam war vets.
I Love You Tonight is a retrospective of his relationship with June Carter Cash.
Well Alright is about helping a woman do her laundry in a laundromat and perhaps more.
Poor Valley Girl is another song that talks about his wife and her upbringing.
Soldier Boy tells the story of a young man who has joined the military and his deployment journey.
Overall this is a Johnny Cash album. Nothing here is groundbreaking. I am not the biggest fan of Cash. I like his music, not overly found of his gospel but everyone has their own path and that was part of his. This album does bring some new songs to light that showcase Cash’s songwriting, which may not always be the best thing. There are also plenty of times in which the same bass lines are used or the same lap steel guitar licks over the course of the album. I probably won’t revisit this one unless I decide I want to learn to play one of the songs.
I do think I prefer Cash’s voice in these recordings over the American recordings as he is a decade younger here and not in the later stages of life. He sounds more spry.
Related: My cat is named Cache, when we got him I had some ideas of making electronic covers of Johnny Cash songs and wanted to use Cache as the name for the project. The project never went anywhere but I got a cat named Cache now.
