The song is featured on Johnny Cash’s new Songwriter album
In the powerful opening song, “Hello Out There” from Johnny Cash’s acclaimed new album, Songwriter available via Mercury Nashville/UMe, the late legendary musician and songwriter sounds as if he’s reaching out from the beyond concerned about mankind and the state of the world as he bellows, “Hello out there/This is planet Earth/Calling Calling Calling Calling Calling,” facilitating his echoes, before continuing, “Hello out there/our net worth is/Falling Falling Falling Falling Falling.” As the song continues, as his son and album co-producer John Carter Cash describes it, the song crescendos with a glorious swirling of Marty Stuart’s spacey guitar licks, strings, steel guitar, pounding drums, the angelic backing vocals of Ana Cristina Cash and Harry Stinson, and Johnny’s prescient message of salvation, sonically falling somewhere between cosmic country and gospel. Recorded just before Johnny was recruited by U2 for Zooropa album closer, “The Wanderer,” the songs could be celestial cousins of sorts.
“I believe Dad wrote it about the Voyager spaceship sometime around when it launched,” states John Carter. “I remember him sitting in Cowboy Jack Clement’s office in the early ‘80s and singing it for him.”
“Hello Out There” debuts with a stunning video directed by Matt Paskert (Morgan Wallen, Jason Aldean, Larry Fleet) and starring Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s youngest granddaughter, six-year-old Grace June Cash, the daughter of John Carter and his wife Ana Cristina Cash. In the black and white video, Grace sets off alone on an adventure and comes upon the Cash Cabin, Johnny’s hallowed sanctuary in Hendersonville, Tenn. where he wrote and recorded some of his final songs, and where Songwriter was produced. Inside the cabin, she communes with the grandparents she never knew through family treasures, photos and Johnny and June’s personal belongings, including Johnny’s Bible and June’s banjolin. Johnny and June’s spirits are evoked through a variety of items such as Cash and Carter family fishing poles, Johnny’s desk from his office, his portable Ampex tape recorder and Martin Parlor guitar, June’s tackle box and her 1890’s Steinway upright piano. One of the final shots subtly shows a poignant family connection that has carried across multiple generations.
“It’s a black and white video but right at the end of it you see my daughter’s beautiful blue eyes that are just the same as my mother’s,” John Carter says. “I can’t help but cry every time I watch it.”
“Directing the video for ‘Hello Out There’ and the visuals for Johnny Cash’s Songwriter album was an unexpected and profound honor,” confirms Matt Paskert. “What truly set this project apart for me was our commitment to honoring the Cash legacy. We had the privilege of filming entirely on the Cash family’s property, starring Grace June Cash, who is a spitting image of her grandmother. The visuals are full of authenticity, showcasing many genuine Johnny Cash artifacts… from his personal Bible to original handwritten lyric sheets, and much much more. A heartfelt thank you to John Carter Cash, Ana Cristina Cash, Grace Cash and the entire Cash estate team for not only their trust, but also their involvement and support in bringing the Cash Songwriter legacy to life on screen. The opportunity to collaborate with such a talented team at UMe, Mercury Nashville, Sandbox Succession, and Taillight made the entire creative process seamless.”
The first single, “Well Alright” continues to climb up the Americana radio chart where it was No. 1 most added in its first week and is currently No. 15 for the second week in a row.
Songwriter spawned out of demos that Johnny recorded in 1993 at LSI Studios in Nashville. John Carter, who played guitar on the original sessions, and co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson, stripped the songs back to just Johnny’s powerful, pristine vocals and brought in a handpicked group of musicians who played with Johnny, including guitarist Marty Stuart and the late bassist Dave Roe, along with drummer Pete Abbott and several others, to the Cash Cabin, where they recorded new parts for the songs and reinvigorated them. John Carter and Fergie also brought in a couple of special guests for some of the songs – Dan Auerbach plays electric guitar on “Spotlight” and Vince Gill adds his vocals to “Poor Valley Girl.”
Returning the focus to Johnny’s songwriting, the 11-track collection, Songwriter, showcases the breadth of his writing, one that has always represented the great expanse of the human condition: there are songs of love, family, sorrow, beauty, spiritual salvation, survival, redemption, and of course, some of the lighthearted humor Johnny was known for, all sung in his unmistakable, trademark, resonant voice.
