Johnny Cash's Iconic "Bitter Tears" Getting All-Star Tribute

Country and Americana Superstars revisit iconic album which is amongst Johnny Cash's personal best.

It's been 50 years since Johnny Cash released Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian and while the album wasn't the biggest ht of his career, it certainly was one of his most treasured album releases. The album was a concept album focusing on the mistreatment and marginalization of the Native American people throughout the history of the United States. The album's eight tracks included the Top 3 hit "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," a song which hit #3 on the Billboard Country charts. The song spoke in frank and poetic terms about the hardhips and intolerance American Indians endured.

50 years later a cavalcade of top Americana and Country music artists are set to reimagine and update these songs. The album will be released August 19, 2014 via Sony Masterworks as Look Again To The Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears RevisitedAmong the stars participating are producer Joe Henry, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Bill Miller, Steve Earl, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Norman and Nancy Blake and more. Just like it was for Cash, this record was a labor of love for producer Joe Henry.
“Prior to Bitter Tears, the conversation about Native American rights had not really been had,” says Henry, “and at a very significant moment in his trajectory, Johnny Cash was willing to draw a line and insist that this be considered a human rights issue, alongside the civil rights issue that was coming to fruition in 1964. But he also felt that the record had never been heard, so there’s a real sense that we’re being asked to carry it forward.”

The album, which was considered risky by Columbia Records at the time of its release because it'd alienate Cash's Country music fan base, but it also helped him gain more admirers from the newer Folk music crowd. Cash debuted "Ira Hayes" at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival to rave reviews and earned a young admirer in Emmylou Harris.
“The record was a seminal work for her as a teenager,” says Henry. “She bought the album brand new and realized at that moment that Johnny Cash was a folk singer, not a country singer, and was involving himself politically and socially in a way that she had identified with the great folk singers at that moment.”

The album was recorded in three sessions: the first two in Los Angeles and Nashville and, lastly, one at the Cash Cabin, in Cash’s hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee, where Bill Miller cut his contribution. Providing the instrumental backing for most of the album are Greg Leisz (steel guitar, guitars), Keefus Ciancia (keyboards), Patrick Warren (keyboards for the L.A. sessions), Jay Bellerose (drums) and Dave Piltch (bass).

Look Again To The Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited Tracklist

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

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