Coming off his crossover hit “Ring of Fire,” and against strong resistance from his record label, Johnny Cash recorded “Bitter Tears,” an album in support of Native American rights. It was not a popular cause at the time. “It’s the earliest and most significant statement on behalf of Native people and our issues,” Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, said of the album. And protesting was not something that country stars like Cash did back then. One editor of a country music magazine demanded that Cash resign from the Country Music Association.
– The New York Times
Fifty years after it was recorded, a collective of top Americana artists has come together to reimagine and update these songs that meant so much to Cash. Look Again To The Wind: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited (Sony Music Masterworks), produced by Joe Henry, features American music giants Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Bill Miller, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Norman and Nancy Blake, as well as up-and-comers the Milk Carton Kids and Rhiannon Giddens, interpreting the music of Bitter Tears for a new generation.
– Sony Music Masterworks
It’s a testament to the material that, 50 years later, artists including Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and the Milk Carton Kids make these tales of racism, prejudice and broken treaties against the land’s native people as compelling as today’s news. – USA Today
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TRACK LISTING:
1. As Long as the Grass Shall Grow – feat. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
2. Apache Tears – feat. Emmylou Harris w/The Milk Carton Kids
3. Custer – feat. Steve Earle w/The Milk Carton Kids
4. The Talking Leaves – feat. Nancy Blake w/ Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings
5. The Ballad of Ira Hayes – feat. Kris Kristofferson w/ Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
6. Drums – feat. Norman Blake w/ Nancy Blake, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
7. Apache Tears (Reprise) – feat. Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings
8. White Girl – feat. The Milk Carton Kids
9. The Vanishing Race – feat. Rhiannon Giddens
10. As Long as the Grass Shall Grow (Reprise) – feat. Nancy Blake, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings
11. Look Again to The Wind – feat. Bill Miller