Album Reviews

In the annals of popular music, the landscape is littered with numerous releases issued without the artist’s input that deliver questionable results — and more often than not, they come out well after they have passed on. In what should always be a “handle with care” scenario, too many dubious decisions have instead been made by producers and record labels alike to create, shall we say, Frankensteined recordings that were not true to the aesthetic of the original performer or the recordings themselves.

Notorious examples of this practice come to mind in terms of posthumous releases from top-tier artists like Jimi Hendrix (Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning, a pair of 1975 releases, not to mention scores of other non-family-approved LPs culled from his vaults) and even The Beatles (the “updated” ’90s versions of John Lennon’s demos for “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” as well as 2023’s “Now & Then”) among them.

That all said, the prospect of a new Johnny Cash album in 2024 is both daunting and exciting, especially when the album is created posthumously from unreleased demos. Fortunately, the new Cash album we have at hand for this review, which is simply titled Songwriter and was released by UMe/Mercury Nashville on June 28, 2024, and sports an SRP of $29.99, suffers none of the issues mentioned above — and it was, in fact, produced very thoughtfully by the late, great artist’s son, John Carter Cash, who maintains a high level of credibility and quality throughout this 11-song LP and is something to be cherished by fans both old and new.

Indeed, one of the details that struck me immediately upon hearing Songwriter is its timeless track-to-track consistency in its bringing together a set of songs that were apparently written over different time periods into a unified whole. These songs were initially laid down to tape by Cash just before he began his iconic final run of 1990s albums on the American Recordings series of LPs produced by Rick Rubin (and released on his label of the same name). In many ways, Songwriter serves as something of a “prequel” — if you’ll pardon my nick of phrase from the movie-making universe — to that wonderful American Recordings series that reinvigorated Cash’s career and visibility to new audiences around the world.

Some background from the official Songwriter press release offers useful perspective: “Songwriter spawned out of demos that Johnny recorded in 1993 at LSI Studios in Nashville. John Carter [Cash], who played guitar on the original sessions, and co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson, stripped the songs back to just Johnny’s powerful, pristine vocals and brought in a handpicked group of musicians that played with Johnny, including guitarist Marty Stuart and the late bassist Dave Roe, along with drummer Pete Abbott and several others, to the Cash Cabin, where they recorded new parts for the songs and reinvigorated them. John Carter and Fergie also brought in a couple of special guests for some of the songs — Dan Auerbach [of The Black Keys] plays electric guitar on ‘Spotlight’ and Vince Gill adds his vocals to ‘Poor Valley Girl.’” It is important to note that the producers did retain, and include in the new mix, the original 1993-era backing vocals by Waylon Jennings (who passed away in 2000).

As far as DNA goes for Songwriter, we don’t know all the details as of yet, but it stands to reason that there was likely a digital stage in this album’s creation, especially given that Cash’s vocals were taken from the original demo multitracks. Also, given that the album was recorded, mixed, and mastered across several different studios, it’s a pretty safe bet that digital files were likely shuttled back and forth at some point in the making of this album. I also can’t imagine the producers simply erasing the old recordings and then working off 30-year-old tape stock for a new 21st century release — so, in all likelihood, they probably transferred the vocals into a modern digital audio workstation to craft this new collection.

Regardless, given this 180g LP’s round and warm character, Songwriter certainly sounds like at least parts of it were recorded in analog — the vocals at a minimum. Cash’s voice sounds rich, and most importantly, connected to the musicians. There is a roundness to the instrumentation and overall album feel.

However it was made, sonically, creatively, and aesthetically Songwriter is beautiful batch of tunes, delivering these 11 unearthed Cash songs in a classic-feeling, modern-yet-timeless country-tinged flavor. This music and recording sound just right, which is in part why this release is so exciting.

Glancing back at the examples set by those aforementioned posthumous Hendrix recordings, and even the acclaimed-but-at-times-technically-problematic Beatles reunion tracks, Songwriter avoids those pitfalls and comes out shining with what is ultimately a great Johnny Cash album.

Again, from the official Cash site, we gain poignant insight from the producer himself: “‘We just went rudimentary,’ said John Carter [Cash] of the approach. ‘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?’”

These songs are quite wonderful. One that jumped out at me is the war-story song “Soldier Boy” (Side B, Track 4), which sounds almost as if Johnny was effectively rewriting — consciously or unconsciously — a melody borrowed from one of his early Sun Records hits, 1958’s “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” (which reached No. 1 on the Hot Country singles chart and No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year). “Soldier Boy” is its own thing, of course — and much heavier topically, for sure.

Meanwhile, “Hello Out There” (Side A, Track 1) is a near-perfect moody album opener, sounding lyrically somewhat eerily prescient for the strange times we live in today. It was apparently recorded around the time U2 recruited Cash to sing on the closing track on their somewhat experimental July 1993 Island release Zooropa, “The Wanderer.” Cash’s site offers more fascinating perspective here: “Recorded just before Johnny was recruited by U2 for [the] Zooropa album closer, ‘The Wanderer,’ the songs could be celestial cousins of sorts. ‘I believe dad wrote it about the Voyager spaceship sometime around when it launched,’ said John Carter [Cash]. ‘I remember him sitting in Cowboy’s office and singing it for him.’”

As far as how my black vinyl copy of Songwriter sounds, I can’t complain at all. The deep, dark 180g vinyl is quiet and well-centered. The simple but dramatic cover art and overall production aesthetic for the album feels just right and not locked into any one time period. The stark black-and-white imagery is also more or less in keeping with the general look and feel of those now-legendary, above-noted Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings releases that capped Cash’s career — and that sort of continuity is both appreciated and worth noting. Also wprth noting is that Songwriter comes housed in a nice custom-printed paper inner sleeve with lyrics and session details.

Fans of color vinyl should take note that numerous variants (as shown below) are available in a “smoke” hue from the official Johnny Cash site here (though the SRP jumps to $49.99), while splatter options have been earmarked for indie records stores that can be found here (though those SRPs come in at upwards of $57.99).

As far as our ratings go, we here at AP think it is fair to give Songwriter a solid 9 for Music, as well as an 8.5 for Sound (which rounds up to a 9 on the ratings dial at the top of this review).

Songwriter is a fine recording that I’ll happily add into my Johnny Cash collection, and be more than pleased to return listen to it again. In a nutshell, this is a batch of good songs that sound good! Whether you became a fan of Cash’s music from those late-period Rubin-produced American Recordings albums or if you’ve been following him since the 1950s and ’60s, you owe it to yourself to check out the new Songwriter collection. The Man in Black’s music remains alive and well in our hearts — and once again on our turntables.

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

JOHNNY CASH
SONGWRITER
180g 1LP (UMe/Mercury)

Side A
1. Hello Out There
2. Spotlight
3. Drive On
4. I Love You Tonite
5. Have You Ever Been To Little Rock?

Side B
1. Well Alright
2. She Sang Sweet Baby James
3. Poor Valley Girl
4. Soldier Boy
5. Sing It Pretty Sue
6. Like A Soldier