Throughout his lifetime Johnny Cash was criticized incessantly for never collaborating with Snoop Dogg. The bizarre dearth of Snoop Dogg/Johnny Cash joints represented an inexplicable oversight in Cash's otherwise legendary career. Well, it looks like a new remix tribute to the late country icon is going to give fans the Cash/Dogg mash-up they've been hungering for since The Chronic first dropped. Dogg will be Executive Producing, along with John "Johnny's Son" Carter Cash and Matthew "Beyonce's Dad" Knowles, a Johnny Cash remix album creatively entitled Johnny Cash Remixed that features "I Walkte The Line", the classic updated by Dogg and production partners Teddy Riley and DJ Quik. So, you know, you got that to look forward to. The disc will hit stores early next year. Here's the press release:
JOHNNY CASH REMIXED CD AND DVD DOCUMENTARY SET FOR JANUARY 27 RELEASE ON COMPADRE RECORDS
Iconic Artist's Sun Records Masters Remixed – Artists featured include Snoop Dogg
(Houston, TX) Compadre Records/Music World Music has announced the release of JOHNNY CASH REMIXED, featuring bold new interpretations of Johnny Cash classics from top music remixers and producers who were recruited to take the original master recordings and infuse them with the sounds and technology of modern music styles such as hip hop and dance music. The album, which includes a performance from Snoop Dogg, will be available in stores and online on January 27. A vinyl deluxe-edition will be available on September 23 in select independent record stores.
Johnny Cash Remixed is a tribute to the legacy of an American music icon whose work has touched every contemporary genre, and has the blessing and support of the custodians of Johnny Cash's legacy.
"My father made his stead by defying the expected and accepted way of things" says John Carter Cash son of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash and Executive Producer of the Academy Award(c)-winning film, Walk the Line. "He set the standard at the same time. He would have loved this remix record. While it stays true to the original recordings, this CD touches on undiscovered ground. This is what my father was about: staying true to tradition while creating groundbreaking new music."
Johnny Cash classics were licensed from Cash's first record label, the legendary Sun Records, also the first record label home of luminaries such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison. The original tracks, recorded with Cash's first band the Tennessee Two from 1956-1959, were pure and stark, with only the essentials; guitar, light percussion and Johnny Cash's unmistakable voice and presence. The new mixes maintain this fantastic charm and personality while filing out the sound and creating daring re-interpretations.
The remixed tracks (and remixers) include "I Walkte The Line" featuring Snoop Dogg (QDT, the new production team led by Snoop Dogg – featuring Snoop, Teddy Riley and DJ Quik), "Country Boy" (Sonny J, whose album was released in August on Astralwerks US), "Get Rhythm" (Philip Steir, the only remixer allowed to work with the Reprise Records Frank Sinatra collection), "Leave that Junk Alone" (Alabama 3, creators of The Sopranos theme song), "Folsom Prison Blues" (the legendary Pete Rock), "Hey Porter" (Mocean Worker, whose remix of Elvis Presley's "Burnin' Love" was used as a soundtrack to Honda's Superbowl TV commercial), "Sugartime" (Kennedy, cornerstone of the new UK Dirty Pop movement), "Trail To Mexico" (indie favorite Mexican Institute of Sound/MIS), "Doin' My Time" (The Heavy, critically-acclaimed UK-based band) and "Wide Open Road" (Count de Money) among others.
A documentary following the making will be included with the album, and was produced by Phear Creative in NYC. This short film features interviews from select remixers, filmed in their home studios, including Snoop Dogg captured at the Cash Recording Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Johnny Cash Remixed is Executive Produced by John Carter Cash, Snoop Dogg, and Mathew Knowles for Music World Productions, Inc. and Co-Executive Produced by Brad Turcotte for Compadre Records/Music World Music and Gregg DeMammos for DeMammos Entertainment.