Johnny Cash

Recorded July 28, 1990 at The Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

If Out Among the Stars had come out when its sessions were completed, it would've appeared sometime in 1984, arriving between 1983's flinty Johnny 99 and 1985's slippery, sentimental Rainbow. Allegedly, this album – discovered by Legacy and John Carter Cash during some archival work in 2012 – was shelved because its Billy Sherrill production was just a little bit too pop for Johnny Cash's taste, but that reasoning isn't sound, particularly with the Chips Moman-produced crossover of sugar of Rainbow taken into consideration. Moman had been riding high on the hits he produced for Willie Nelson – notably "Always on My Mind," Willie's last great crossover smash – and he applied a similar heavy-handed touch to Cash, who at that point was several years away from his last Country Top 10 hit.

If Out Among the Stars had come out when its sessions were completed, it would've appeared sometime in 1984, arriving between 1983's flinty Johnny 99 and 1985's slippery, sentimental Rainbow. Allegedly, this album – discovered by Legacy and John Carter Cash during some archival work in 2012 – was shelved because its Billy Sherrill production was just a little bit too pop for Johnny Cash's taste, but that reasoning isn't sound, particularly with the Chips Moman-produced crossover of sugar of Rainbow taken into consideration. Moman had been riding high on the hits he produced for Willie Nelson – notably "Always on My Mind," Willie's last great crossover smash – and he applied a similar heavy-handed touch to Cash, who at that point was several years away from his last Country Top 10 hit.