Eleven previously unreleased songs by
Johnny Cash, which the country star recorded as demos in 1993 but never completed, are to finally see the light of day on a new album entitled Songwriter, due to be released on 28 June.
A single, Well Alright, was released today alongside the announcement: a saucy, strutting number about lust amid laundry with a classic Cash opening couplet: "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?"
Featuring guest appearances by country singer Vince Gill and rock band the Black Keys, the demos have been worked up into finished versions, and recorded by a crack team of musicians who previously played with Cash including guitarist Marty Stuart, drummer Pete Abbott, and – prior to his death in 2023 – upright bassist Dave Roe. Cash's vocal performances from the demo recordings have been added on top.
Cash's son John Carter Cash has co-produced the project, alongside David "Fergie" Ferguson, the studio engineer who worked alongside Rick Rubin to record Cash's awe-inspiring suite of songs towards the end of his life, American Recordings.