A Vault Full of Vintage Cash

Johnny Cash’s “lost” album, Out Among the Stars, is a time capsule from the ’80s, when Columbia Records sent the Man in Black to Nashville to work with “countrypolitan” producer Billy Sherrill, the man behind George Jones and Tammy Wynette. The resulting songs were shelved until John Carter Cash discovered them in his father’s archives. To mark what would have been Cash’s 80th birthday, Out Among the Stars collects 12 of those never-before-heard tracks–including duets with June Carter Cash and Waylon Jennings. The idiosyncratic album ambles easily among genres, from bluegrass (“Don’t You Think It’s Come Our Time”) and country hymns (“I Came to Believe”) to classic Cash (“She Used to Love Me a Lot”), creating a well-curated reminder for audiences reared on Cash’s American Recordings work that he could sing anything and make it resonate.

–MELISSA LOCKER