2024 has been fairly hot with releases so far and that tone isn’t changing as the year winds on. News dropped recently that none other than the Man In Black himself, Johnny Cash will have a new album hit stores on June 28^th. Songwriter will mark Cash’s 72^nd studio album (!) and 5^th since his death in 2003.

Songwriter is an album that Cash recorded demos for in early 1993 and then shelved, as it was not long after when he was approached by Rick Rubin. The Rubin collaboration launched a late-career revitalization with the American Recordings series that grew Cash’s legend up to and beyond his death, so the Songwriter demos remained an afterthought.

These demos would be discovered many years later by Cash and June Carter’s son John Carter Cash. The younger Cash presented them to engineer David Ferguson, who had worked in that role on the American Recordings series. Cash and Ferguson stripped down everything from the demos but for Johnny’s vocals and guitar (with one exception) and then set about finding a new cast to reshape the music.

Joining in to help flesh out the album were Marty Stuart and Harry Stinson, as well as guest spots from Vince Gill and Dan Auerbach. There is also another posthumous presence on the record, as Waylon Jennings had dropped in to sing on a few songs with Cash on the original recordings.

One other interesting quirk of Songwriter – many of Johnny Cash’s albums featured a hefty dose of cover songs. This upcoming album is different in that it features all original material. Two of the songs, Ride On and Like A Soldier, were re-recorded and used on American Recordings.

With the news of the album also came the first single, a quick two-minute tune called Well Alright. The song is upbeat and pretty amusing, it’s simply about meeting up with a gal at a laundromat. It’s a song that easily puts a smile on your face and is maybe just ever so slightly suggestive in a phrase or two, but nothing out of bounds. It also sounds really good – merging Cash’s 1993 recording with 2023 musicians worked out great and the production is crystal clear without being too sterile.

I know posthumous releases can be a touch subject in the music world, and Johnny Cash is reported to have enough unreleased material to release an album a year for eons if his legacy caretakers so desired. But Songwriter is filling in a gap from a moment in time just before Cash had his last big break and I consider it an important offering for the Cash catalog. I’m also totally fine with posthumous releases, I honestly just want to hear the music so bring it on. I’m looking forward to the end of June and the rest of this album.