A new album titled Forever Words is set to be released via Legacy Recordings on April 6. The collaborative album will function as a way to publish Johnny Cash’s previously unrecorded lyrics and poems, with the words set to music by the likes of the late Chris Cornell, as well as other big names like Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, John Mellencamp, Robert Glasper, Elvis Costello, Brad Paisley, and others.
After Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash both died in 2003, Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, was left with a huge number of personal items, including handwritten letters, poems, and other writings of the legendary musician. Many of them were included in Forever Words: The Unknown Poems, a book that contained Johnny Cash’s unpublished writing.
Conceived as a sort of “musical companion” to the book, John Carter Cash took on the role of Forever Words’ co-producer, alongside Steve Berkowitz, inviting the all-star crew of musicians, including Johnny’s daughter Rosanne Cash and step-daughter Carlene Carter, to create new music to accompany Cash’s words.
As stated by Variety, John Carter Cash had this to say about Forever Words, “Determining the artist for each song was truly a matter of the heart. … I picked the artists who are most connected with my father, who had a personal story that was connected with Dad. It became an exciting endeavor to go through these works, to put them together and present them to different people who could finish them in a way that I believed that Dad would have wanted.”
Johnny Cash: Forever Words Tracklist:
Forever/I Still Miss Someone – Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson
To June This Morning – Ruston Kelly and Kacey Musgraves
Gold All Over the Ground – Brad Paisley
You Never Knew My Mind – Chris Cornell
The Captain’s Daughter – Alison Krauss and Union Station
Jellico Coal Man – T. Bone Burnett
The Walking Wounded – Rosanne Cash
Them Double Blues – John Mellencamp
Body on Body – Jewel
I’ll Still Love You – Elvis Costello
June’s Sundown – Carlene Carter
He Bore It All – Daily and Vincent
Chinky Pin Hill – I’m With Her
Goin’, Goin’, Gone – Robert Glasper featuring Ro James, and Anu Sun
What Would I Dreamer Do? – The Jayhawks
Spirit Rider – Jamey Johnson
[H/T Variety]