On what would have been Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday, his fans are prepping for the release of American VI: Ain’t No Grave, an album of Cash’s final recordings with producer Rick Rubin (see our review posting later today.)What most fans don’t know is that there’s one album they haven’t likely heard by Cash. But if supporters including Cash’s son have their way, they soon will.
According to a Reuters report, a group of fans and supporters are lobbying Sony for an official re-release of Cash’s 1964 album, Bitter Tears, a protest album that lamented the nation’s institutional treatment of Native Americans.
Leading the campaign is Anthony D’Ambrosio, a self-described passionate Cash fan who came across the album by chance, and has since written a book about it, titled A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears.
“It would have been very easy for Johnny Cash to make a civil rights record at that time,” he says. “He didn’t. He chose to focus on the very real struggle of another group, and the album is relevant to this day.”
The album is obscure because Cash’s label distanced itself from the controversial project after its original release. Cash also had no support from radio programmers at the time. Cash’s son, John Carter Cash, says that this album was his favorite, despite its obscurity to fans.
“Nobody did concept albums back then, and this album solidifies my father’s role as a humanitarian and a spokesman for the underdog. It’s such an important historical record, and I’d love to see it get a proper re-release,” he says.
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