A new song from Johnny Cash has been shared called ‘Spotlight’, which he recorded back in 1993 and has since seen contributions from The Black Keys‘ Dan Auerbach. Check it out below.
Released today (June 7), the track is the latest to be released from ‘Songwriter’ – an album of previously unreleased songs by the late country music icon, which is set to be released later this year.
As with all tracks on the forthcoming LP, the vocals for ‘Spotlight’ were originally recorded by Cash back in early 1993 at the LSI Studios in Nashville. He laid down the track as part of a demo session.
Now, the track has been found by John Carter Cash – the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash – and he and co-producer David ‘Fergie’ Ferguson have stripped the song down to isolate the songwriter’s vocals. This was done in a bid to free it from the slightly dated production, and rebuild the track afresh with a group of musicians who had worked with the country icon in the past.
Guitarist Marty Stuart, drummer Pete Abbott, the late bassist Dave Roe and others were recruited to create a new arrangement for the song, and The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach was also brought in to contribute to the re-imagined track.
Check out the final result below.
As with all of the songs on ‘Songwriter’, ‘Spotlight is listed as being solely written by Johnny Cash, and the vocals in the track are the same version as seen in the 1993 demo.
“It was the thrill of a lifetime to be able to play guitar on a Johnny Cash song,” said Dan Auerbach of his contribution. “Hearing his voice through the speakers in my studio sent chills down my spine. I can’t thank John Carter and Fergie enough for including me.”
“It was great to have Dan be a part of ‘Spotlight’ and to add his guitar tones and his sounds to this incredible song,” added John Carter Cash. “I think it really opened it up into a different direction. It’s good to hear two fantastic guitarists, Dan and Marty, working together to bring this song alive.”
This marks the second of the singles to be shared from the upcoming LP, which is set to arrive on June 28 via Mercury Nashville/UMe. The lead single, ‘Well Alright’ was shared upon the album’s announcement in April.
“Returning the focus to Johnny’s own songwriting, the 11-track collection, ‘Songwriter’, showcases the breadth of his writing, one that has always represented the great expanse of the human condition,” reads a description for the album. “There are songs of love, family, sorrow, beauty, spiritual salvation, survival, redemption, and of course, some of the lighthearted humour Johnny was known for, all sung in his unmistakable, trademark, resonant voice.”
You can pre-order the album here and find a full tracklist below.
The Johnny Cash ‘Songwriter’ tracklist is
1. ‘Hello Out There’
2. ‘Spotlight’
3. ‘Drive On’
4. ‘I Love You Tonite’
5. ‘Have You Ever Been to Little Rock?’
6. ‘Well Alright’
7. ‘She Sang Sweet Baby James’
8. ‘Poor Valley Girl’
9. ‘Soldier Boy’
10. ‘Sing It Pretty Sue’
11. ‘Like A Soldier’
In other recent Johnny Cash news, Paul McCartney credited the country icon as the inspiration for him to form Wings.
“We were in bed one night, newly married, when Johnny Cash came on the telly with a new band he’d formed with Carl Perkins, a big hero of mine. There they were, playing with some country musicians I had never heard of, looking like they were having fun,” he recalled.
“I thought: here’s Johnny, he’s back, he’s doing it. So I turned to Linda and said: Do you want to form a band? And she went: ‘Sure.’ That’s how our relationship was. Do you want to go and live on a farm in Scotland? ‘Why not?’”