Songwriter (Vinyl)

More than 20 years after his death, there are treasures in the Johnny Cash vault that have remained unmined, despite assumptions that everything interesting might have been brought into the light in the posthumous recordings that came out in the years following his 2003 death. Songwriter is a collection of 11 previously unreleased recordings that Cash demo-ed in 1993, all of them self-penned originals.

These original compositions make for an intriguing find, given that the country legend was a revered songwriter when he set his mind to it, yet he primarily relied on outside material throughout his career. Only two of the 11 self-written songs in the set were ever re-recorded and released in any form: “Drive On” and “Like a Soldier,” which appeared in different form on the first album Rick Rubin produced for Cash, “American Recordings.”

The songs were written over several decades. After rediscovering the demos, John Carter Cash and David "Fergie" Ferguson stripped them back to just Cash's vocals and guitar before overdubbing newly recorded parts by a new band, including several musicians who had worked with Cash such as Marty Stuart (credited in the liner notes as having been involved in the original recordings) and David Roe. The recordings also retain original backing vocals recorded by Waylon Jennings, who died in 2002. The album was recorded as a series of songwriting demos at LSI Studios at the time in early 1993 when Cash wasn't signed to a label and shortly before he met Rick Rubin.