Despite inconsistency in the quality of the songs featured, “Songwriter” is a worthwhile addition to the Cash legacy.
The date marking the issue of an album of previously unreleased recordings by The Man in Black is one that will have a large number of music fans worldwide drawing a ring around the date on their calendar. In early 1993, with his career at a crossroads and with no recording contract in place, Cash recorded a bunch of demos of songs he’d written over a period of many years. Around the same time, Cash met producer Rick Rubin, who had previously worked with a whole host of artists, across a number of musical genres, from hip-hoppers The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, LL Cool J and Run-DMC, to rock bands like Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Cult. The two decided to work together and Cash astutely took the decision to shelve the demo recordings he had recorded, to concentrate on his work with Rubin on a project that ultimately would revitalise Cash’s career; the critically acclaimed series of “American Recordings“.
Some thirty years after the demo recordings were made, John Carter Cash, son of Johnny and June, rediscovered the songs and stripped them back to vocals and acoustic guitar, as it was felt the full band recordings sounded dated, so a group of musicians who had previously played with Cash were invited to play alongside the demo vocal and acoustic guitar. These musicians included long-time collaborators Dave Roe (bass) and Marty Stuart (guitar). The recording sessions took place at the Cash Cabin, a recording studio that Carter Cash set up in 1999, within the log cabin that Cash had built in the late 1970s in a patch of untouched woodland near the family home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Cash used the cabin as a place to write and to relax. Carter Cash brought in David ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, Cash’s go-to engineer for much of his career, as co-producer. Cash’s voice is sounding great across all the songs on this release and the decision to strip the original demo recordings back to voice and acoustic guitar whilst engaging top-quality musicians reaps dividends. The LP has really good sound quality to it and doesn’t sound as if it has been created from original recordings over thirty years ago.
Opening track ‘Hello Out There‘ is not the strongest track on the album; it starts out with some lyrics that are a little clichéd, “Hello out there, This is planet Earth, Calling Calling Calling Calling Calling” but get past the words and you’ll enjoy a strong melody and the instrument arrangement shows off Cash’s voice. Much better is the second single release, ‘Spotlight‘ which is probably the highlight of the record, featuring a tremendous guitar solo from Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.
‘Drive On‘ focuses on the hardships that were endured by veterans of the Vietnam War; this is much sharper lyrically, making a number of points “Well, a mortar fell 20 feet away, And I carry shrapnel, to this day, I came home, but Tex did not, And I can’t talk about the hit he got“. The song concludes with Carter Cash and Wesley Orbison (son of Roy) playing duelling lead guitars. This is one of two songs that also appeared (though arranged quite differently) on “American Recordings“. The sentimental ‘I Love You Tonite‘ is a love letter to wife June; it’s dated by references to timescales “Can you believe we made it through the eighties? And will we make the millennium?“. This track is one of two to feature Waylon Jennings on background vocals from the original demo sessions. ‘Have You Ever Been To Little Rock‘ has a melody which strongly reminds of Joe South’s 1969 double Grammy Award-winning hit ‘Games People Play‘; with the words expressing Cash’s love for his backyard, its people, its scenery and its way of life.
‘Well Alright‘ is a difficult song to review. The first single release from the record, musically it’s good; it has a catchy tune and instrumentally, it’s so obviously a Cash recording, even before the vocal begins. The words, however, are enough to make you cringe. It starts “I met her at the laundry mat, She was washing extra hot, I said, ‘Don’t you need a little help with that big load you got?’“. Then later “I put it on automatic, And she sat down on the floor, She said, ‘Just keep it on medium hot’ I said, ‘I’ve done this before’“. Cash has a history of successfully recording some humorous songs, such as ‘Boy Named Sue‘ and ‘One Piece at a Time‘, but this is more akin to ‘The Chicken in Black‘. In stark contrast to ‘Well Alright‘ is ‘She Sang ‘Sweet Baby James’‘, a quite beautiful song about a young single mother who lives a hard life and has to work every day at a driving job, while her mother looks after the baby. She sings the James Taylor lullaby ‘Sweet Baby James‘ and dreams of finding a better life with her baby. ‘Sing it Pretty Sue‘ is a song that is revisited here by Cash after first being aired elsewhere; it originally appeared on 1962’s “The Sound of Johnny Cash“.
Album closer ‘Like A Soldier‘ is the second song that previously appeared on 1994’s “American Recordings” release although the “Songwriter” version was recorded first. For its “American Recordings” outing it featured only Cash’s acoustic guitar for accompaniment, whereas here it has Jennings on backing vocals and a full band. The song is about Cash’s struggle with, and recovery from, addiction. “I’m like a solider gettin’ over the war, I’m like a young man getting over his crazy days, Like a bandit getting over his lawless ways, But every day is better than the day before“.
So, what would Cash say about this release? According to Ferguson, Cash would say, on completion of every record he ever made, “I think it’s the best record I’ve ever made”.
On (far too) many occasions old, previously unreleased recordings, particularly from artists who are no longer with us, are ‘unearthed’ and when they are released to great fanfare, it’s obvious why they were not released previously and certainly not when the artist was alive; they risk tarnishing the artist’s legacy. That is most definitely not the case here; most of the songs are good and Carter Cash and Ferguson have done an exceptional job in bringing the 1993 recordings up-to-date. This has been done sensitively and painstakingly and lovingly and it shows in the results.
