As previously reported, Johnny Cash is set to drop his long-lost album Out Among The Stars. The album was recorded with Country Music Hall of Famer Billy Sherrill in the early 1980s, during a low point in Cash's career.
Sherrill, who produced the album, was pushing country music in a pop direction that clashed with Cash's style. "It was the 'Urban Cowboy' phase," his son John Carter Cash told the Associated Press. "It was pop country, and dad was not that. I think him working with Billy was sort of an effort by the record company to put him more in the circle of Music Row and see what could happen at the heart of that machine."
The album was never released by his label Columbia Records and had disappeared when they dropped Cash in 1986. Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, hid the tapes in storage. "They never threw anything away," his son told the AP. "They kept everything in their lives. They had an archive that had everything in it from the original audio tapes from 'The Johnny Cash Show' to random things like a camel saddle, a gift from the prince of Saudi Arabia."
The album, due out March 25, features the track "She Used to Love Me a Lot," which can be heard now on Rolling Stone. Infused with twang and mandolin, the song tells the tale of love lost.
"I really love this song," his son told Rolling Stone. "The depth that's there reminds me of the real serious stuff that Dad did later in his life. And I truly think it's one of the beautiful undiscovered gems in my dad's catalog." Listen to the track here, and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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