“Forever Words”: Brad Paisley, Kacey Musgraves, Alison Krauss and more breathe new life into the unfinished writings of Johnny Cash

Legacy RecordingsThe new Johnny Cash project, Forever Words, won’t be out until April 6, but you can sample the innovative album now, thanks to the track “Gold All over the Ground,” which is also on Brad Paisley’s Love and War record.  

Forever Words was produced by John Carter Cash, the only son of the Man in Black and June Carter Cash. To create the project, John Carter and a diverse group of artists took his father’s lyrics, poetry and letters and turned them into songs.

“I picked the artists who are most connected with my father, who had a personal story that was connected with Dad,” John Carter says. “It became an exciting endeavor to go through these works, to put them together and present them to different people who could finish them in a way that I believed that Dad would have wanted.”

The album begins with Kris Kristofferson reciting the last poem Johnny ever wrote, as Willie Nelson plays the classic “I Still Miss Someone” on guitar. Both were close friends of Cash. Husband-and-wife Kacey Musgraves and Ruston Kelly perform “To June This Morning,” which grew out of a letter Johnny wrote to his wife.

John Carter’s stepsisters Rosanne Cash and Carlene Carter contribute “The Walking Wounded” and “June’s Sundown,” respectively.

The record also included the first studio recording in six years from Alison Krauss and Union Station, the track, “The Captain’s Daughter.”

You can check out a trailer about the making of Forever Words now on YouTube.

Here is the full Johnny Cash: Forever Words track list:

“Forever/I Still Miss Someone” — Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson
“To June this Morning” — Ruston Kelly and Kacey Musgraves
“Gold All Over the Ground” — Brad Paisley
“You Never Knew My Mind” — Chris Cornell
“The Captain’s Daughter” — Alison Krauss and Union Station
“Jellico Coal Man” — T. Bone Burnett
“The Walking Wounded” — Rosanne Cash
“Them Double Blues” — John Mellencamp
“Body on Body” — Jewel
“I’ll Still Love You” — Elvis Costello
“June’s Sundown” — Carlene Carter
“He Bore It All” — Daily and Vincent
“Chinky Pin Hill” — I’m with Her
“Goin’, Goin’, Gone” — Robert Glasper featuring Ro James, and Anu Sun
“What Would I Dreamer Do?” — The Jayhawks
“Spirit Rider” — Jamey Johnson

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