ジョニー・キャッシュ未発表詩集アルバム。クリス・コーネル、ウィリー・ネルソン、エルヴィス・コステロ、ロバート・グラスパー等豪華アーティスト参加。
2016年11月、全米で出版されたジョニー・キャッシュの未発表詩集【FOREVER WORDS:THEUNKNOWN POEMS】から、様々なアーティスト達によって新たに作曲されレコーディングされた16曲を収録。このプロジェクトの発端となった詩集は、2003年ジョニー・キャッシュが亡くなった後に発見された詩や歌詞、手紙をもとに編纂されており、北米でベストセラーとなっている。参加アーティストには娘のロザンヌ・キャッシュを始め、ウィリー・ネルソン、クリス・クリストファーソン、エルヴィス・コステロ、クリス・コーネル、ジョン・メレンキャンプ、伝記映画『ウォーク・ザ・ライン』(05)で音楽を担当したT・ボーン・バーネット、アリソン・クラウス&ユニオン・ステーション等ルーツ・ミュージック界からも大物が名を連ねている。新世代ジャズ界からはロバート・グラスパーが参加。ジャンルを超えて幅広いファンから支持され続けているジョニー・キャッシュのスピリットを受け継ぐ気鋭のアーティストたちによって、その<永遠の言葉>に新たな生命が吹き込まれている。全16曲のうちブラッド・ペイズリーの曲以外はこのアルバムが初発売となる。4曲目の「ユー・ネヴァー・ニュー・マイ・マインド」は2017年5月に亡くなったクリス・コーネル生前最後の録音のうちの1曲として注目されているが、ジョニー・キャッシュは1996年にクリス・コーネルが在籍したバンド:サウンドガーデンの「ラスティ・ケイジ」(91)をカバーしている。ジョニー・キャッシュの胸に突き刺さる詩にオリジナルの曲を提供したクリス・コーネル。2人は21年の歳月を経て再びタッグを組むことになった。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2018/02/16）

Rolling Stone - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[A]n expansive 16-song album that ranges from traditional bluegrass, rootsy blues, plainspoken folk and avant-garde jazz." Pitchfork (Website) - "Nelson and Kristofferson, Cash's surviving fellow Highwaymen, lead off the album with 'Forever/I Still Miss Someone,' with Nelson's guitar Trigger wandering through a forlorn melody as Kristofferson intones what is billed as the last poem their friend wrote..."

Rovi

In 1986, Johnny Cash's place in country music's pecking order had fallen so low that Columbia Records, his recording home since 1960, dropped him from their roster, claiming he was no longer marketable. Given this, perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment of Cash's late-period association with Rick Rubin and his American Recordings label (beginning with the 1994 album American Recordings) is that the world was reminded Cash was a major artist whose work was still powerfully relevant. Among his fans and his peers, respect for Cash had grown tremendously by the time he died in 2003, and since then, material from his archives has been steadily brought before the public. In 2016, a new wrinkle was introduced to Cash's posthumous legacy when a collection of his poems and lyrics, previously unknown, was published in a book titled Forever Words: The Unknown Poems. Now 16 of the pieces from that book have been set to music by a variety of musicians on an album called Johnny Cash: Forever Words. The artists adapting Cash's words range from longtime friends and associates (Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson) and members of the Cash family (Rosanne Cash and Carlene Carter) to contemporary country and roots music stars (Ruston Kelly & Kacey Musgraves and Brad Paisley) and some relative outliers who nevertheless respected Cash's vision (John Mellencamp and, in his final recording, Chris Cornell). While Cash's lyrical voice is strong in these recordings, each artist wrote and arranged their own music for the songs, and as a consequence this runs all over the stylistic map, from the purist's bluegrass of Alison Krauss' "The Captain's Daughter" and the dark, moody country rock of Cornell's "You Never Knew My Mind" to the eccentric orchestral sound of Elvis Costello's "I'll Still Love You." From a musical standpoint, Forever Words is as much about the musicians and what they see in Cash's words as it is about the Man in Black's secret life as a poet, and while every track was created with skill and evident respect to the lyricist, the lack of musical cohesion works against this as an album rather than just a set of songs. Johnny Cash: Forever Words has some brilliant moments and is an often-moving tribute to Cash's gifts as a writer, but as a listening experience, it's unfortunately inconsistent. Maybe some of this was better left on paper. ~ Mark Deming

Rovi