Out Among the Stars

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Out Among the Stars
Johnny Cash - Out Among the Stars.jpg
Studio album by
Johnny Cash
ReleasedMarch 25, 2014 (2014-03-25)
RecordedMarch 18, 1981 – June 14, 1984, with overdubs in November 2013
Studio
  • Columbia Studios (Nashville)
  • 1111 Sound Studios (Los Angeles)
Genre Country
Length36:37
Label
Producer
Compiler John Carter Cash
Johnny Cash chronology
Johnny Cash: The Complete Columbia Album Collection
(2012)		Out Among the Stars
(2014)		 Johnny Cash and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
(2020)
Singles from Out Among the Stars
  1. "She Used to Love Me a Lot"
    Released: January 14, 2014
  2. "I'm Movin' On"
    Released: February 6, 2014
  3. "Baby, Ride Easy"
    Released: February 27, 2014
  4. "Out Among the Stars"
    Released: May 7, 2014

Out Among the Stars is the fourth posthumously released studio album (71st overall) by Johnny Cash. It was released on March 25, 2014, by Legacy Recordings. The recordings come from lost 1980s sessions with famed countrypolitan producer Billy Sherrill, which were shelved by Cash's record company, Columbia Records, and discovered by Cash's son John Carter Cash in 2012. [1]

Contents

Background

The album is composed of recordings made by Cash in 1981 and 1984 with producer Billy Sherrill for Columbia Records. The album was shelved by the label and was never released. In 2012, Cash's son, John Carter Cash, discovered the recordings in the archive and commissioned additional production to complete the album. Cash also recorded the 1981 album The Baron with Sherrilll, in an attempt to turn around his dismal album sales, but the strategy did not work, leaving his record executives eager to end his affiliation with the label. [2] The album is also a posthumous release for June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash's wife, who is featured on two tracks, and for Minnie Pearl and Waylon Jennings, who provide vocals on two other songs, "If I Told You Who It Was" and "I'm Movin' On", respectively.

Two of the tracks would later be rerecorded by Cash at American Recordings and would be released posthumously prior to earlier versions being included here; "I Came to Believe" appears on American V: A Hundred Highways , and a non-duet version of "I'm Movin' On" appears in the box set Unearthed .

In a March 2014 interview promoting the release of Out Among the Stars, John Carter Cash indicated that there may be as many as "four or five" albums worth of previously unreleased material from Cash's 1990s–2000s American label recording sessions, with Cash's last producer, Rick Rubin indicating at least one more such release is planned for the future. [3]

Release and promotion

Lead single "She Used to Love Me a Lot" [4] was released on January 14, 2014, on the Rolling Stone website. [5] "I'm Movin' On", featuring Waylon Jennings, was released as the second single and was premiered by CMT on February 6, 2014. [6] The third single, "Baby, Ride Easy", a duet with June Carter Cash (which the two had performed on TV on Johnny Cash's 1985 Christmas Special) was premiered exclusively by One Country on February 27, 2014. [7] The album's title track, "Out Among the Stars", was released as the fourth and final single, with its lyric video premiering on May 7, 2014. [8]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 69/100 [9]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Mojo Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [12]

According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Out Among the Stars received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 from 21 critic scores. [9] Prior to its release, Stereogum named it one of the most anticipated albums of 2014. [13]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Billy Sherrill "winds up simply sweetening Johnny without changing his core sound". He added that the album "is generally chipper and bright" and "one of Cash's stronger '80s albums". [10]

Rob Tannembaum's review in Rolling Stone mentions Cash's fading star power in the early 1980s amidst the "Urban Cowboy fad". Tannembaum continued: "You might expect Out Among the Stars – a set of unreleased songs he cut with Sherrill in 1981 and 1984 – to be a contract-fulfilling sleepwalk. (Cash put out several mostly mediocre LPs in those years, but left this material unfinished; it was discovered after his death.) Instead, it proves that even at his most uninterested, Cash couldn't help but make a record with weight, moral complexity, and grim humor." [12]

Commercial performance

Released on March 25, 2014, Out Among the Stars debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts, selling 54,000 copies its first week. [14] [15] As of June 29, 2014, the album has sold 149,000 copies in the United States. [16]

In the UK, the album debuted at #4 in the album chart. The album has sold 63,700 copies in the UK as of July 2014. [17]

Track listing

  1. "Out Among the Stars" (Adam Mitchell)  – 3:02
  2. "Baby Ride Easy" (Richard Dobson)  – 2:43
  3. "She Used to Love Me a Lot" (Kye Fleming, Dennis Morgan, Charles Quillen)  – 3:11
  4. "After All" (Charles Cochran, Sandy Mason)  – 2:47
  5. "I'm Movin' On" (Hank Snow)  – 3:09
  6. "If I Told You Who It Was" (Bobby Braddock, Curly Putman)  – 3:05
  7. "Call Your Mother" (Cash)  – 3:17
  8. "I Drove Her Out of My Mind" (Gary Gentry, Hillman Hall)  – 3:01
  9. "Tennessee" (Rick Scott)  – 3:27
  10. "Rock and Roll Shoes" (Paul Kennerley, Graham Lyle)  – 2:41
  11. "Don't You Think It's Come Our Time" (Tommy Collins)  – 2:17
  12. "I Came to Believe" (Cash)  – 3:29
  13. "She Used to Love Me a Lot" (JC/EC Version) (Kye Fleming, Dennis Morgan, Charles Quillen)  – 3:23

Personnel

Adapted from the liner notes. [18]

Chart positions

Certifications

Certifications for Out Among the Stars
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [47] Gold10,000^
United Kingdom (BPI) [48] Silver60,000*

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Talbott, Chris (December 10, 2013). "New Johnny Cash Album to Be Released Next Spring". Associated Press.
  2. ↑ Cash, Johnny (October 1997). Cash: The Autobiography. Harper San Francisco. p. 250. ISBN   0062515004.
  3. ↑ "Johnny Cash: 'four or five more albums in the works', says his son". The Guardian . March 26, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Elvis Costello Remixes Johnny Cash's Lost Song 'She Used to Love Me a Lot'". Spin . Spin Media. March 2, 2014.
  5. ↑ Sullivan, James (January 13, 2014). "Hear Johnny Cash's Lost Love Song". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Hear Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings' "I'm Movin' On"". CMT News. Archived from the original on November 2, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  7. ↑ "EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE from Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: Baby Ride Easy | One Country". www.onecountry.com. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  8. ↑ "ANIMATED LYRIC VIDEO RELEASED FOR LOST JOHNNY CASH SONG "OUT AMONG THE STARS" | Legacy Recordings". Legacy Recordings. May 7, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  9. 1 2 "Out Among the Stars by Johnny Cash". Metacritic. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
  10. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Out Among the Stars review". Allmusic . Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  11. ↑ Simmons, Sylvie (April 2014). "Back to Black: Johnny Cash Out Among the Stars". Mojo : 105.
  12. 1 2 "Johnny Cash Out Among the Stars Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
  13. ↑ DeVille, Chris (December 23, 2013). "The 100 Most Anticipated Albums of 2014". Stereogum .
  14. ↑ Matt Bjorke (April 2, 2014). "Country Album Chart News: The Week of April 2, 2014: Johnny Cash Is Out Among The Stars While It's High Noon time for Jerrod Niemann". Roughstock. Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  15. ↑ Wade Jessen (April 3, 2014). "Johnny Cash Debuts at No. 1 On Top Country Albums". Billboard.
  16. ↑ Roland, Tom (July 2, 2014). "Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Eric Church Lead SoundScan Mid-Year Country Charts". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
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