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The Making, and Remaking, of Johnny Cash’s ‘Songwriter’ Album: How John Carter Cash, Marty Stuart and Others Brought the Icon’s Buried Treasure Back to Life

Johnny Cash’s ‘Songwriter’ album revives unheard ‘93 studio sessions. His son, John Carter Cash, Marty Stuart and others tell how it was made.

It offers a Cash who not only sounds like he’s right there in front of you, in his fullest, richest voice, but trotting out a batch of completely self-penned songs so strong it’s hard to believe he didn’t release them in his lifetime. But the other nine never saw daylight again in any form until now, and there are some real gems among them, including some highly personal material he wrote about his relationship with June Carter Cash and her family. Some of the gospel stuff, like “Man Comes Around” — I mean, he would get lost in studying for the song itself, in scripture, and be looking up things in a Thompson chain cross-referencing system for weeks at a time.

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