Johnny Cash's unpublished poems immortalised in new album

Music legend Johnny Cash left behind a treasure trove of unpublished letters and poems when he died. Now his son has set them to music.

Music legend Johnny Cash.

Music legend Johnny Cash. Source: Daniel Janin

When he died 15 years ago, music icon Johnny Cash left behind a collection of unpublished poems and handwritten letters.

Now his son, John Carter Cash, has set many of those pieces to music for a moving new album, Johnny Cash: Forever Words.

"It was a process you know, but it was because of the strength of the work that it stood out as being something that could work," he told SBS News.

"These are things I believe my father would've loved to share."

Johhny Cash: Forever Words
Source: Supplied


Mr Carter Cash said he found 200 pieces of writing in various states of completion in his late father's office. He said about 60 to 70 of them particularly stood out.

"Some were biblical study notes, some were poems, and some were song lyrics for songs that were published," Mr Carter Cash, who co-produced the album, said.

"Some for songs that no one had heard or that I could not find a melody for."

The collaborative 16-track album consists of songs created from Cash's poetry, lyrics and letters.

It includes vocal performances by Elvis Costello, Alison Krauss, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, among others.



The album begins with a poem Cash wrote in the last weeks of his life. 

"It talks about how the trees that he planted still are young, and the songs that he sings will still be sung," Mr Carter Cash said.

"And to have that vision of hope in one's last days of life is a beautiful thing."

Mr Carter Cash told SBS News his father's words called out to him.

"So it's as if my father communicated with me in Johnny Cash: Forever Words the music, and the whole process of working on this album," he said.

The first official music video from the album is sung by Rosanne Cash, Cash's daughter. 

The Walking Wounded was filmed at Cash's childhood home in Dyess, Arkansas. 



The new album is the companion to book Forever Words: The Unknown Poems, a collection of Cash's unpublished writings. 

Many of the songs on the album were inspired by material in the book, while others came from different sources of Cash's poetry. 

"It is not a tribute album. It is the next step in understanding a deeper level of Johnny Cash," Mr Carter Cash said.


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3 min read

Published

Updated

By Natarsha Kallios



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