Johnny Cash 80th Birthday celebration

Written by admin on February 26, 2012 – 9:26 pm -

Johnny Cash’s family gathered at his boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas today to celebrate what would have been the late star’s 80th birthday. Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas on this day in 1932, the fourth of seven children.

This 80th birthday year is set to be a busy one for the Cash estate, with the restoration of the Dyess property, the opening of a museum in Nashville, and a number of promising record releases, including “Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth” in April, and a comprehensive box set of his first 30 years of recorded output.

The Nashville museum will feature 18,000 square feet of memorabilia, interactive exhibits and a 250-seat auditorium. The project is being overseen by Bill Miller, who was friends with Cash for many years. At a press conference announcing the museum, Cash’s son John Carter Cash, said:

“My father and mother had a way through honesty and truth of spirit. It’s not about the glamour or about making it for Nashville. This is about spreading their spirit.”

“Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth”

“Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth” is a 2-CD, 51-track collection of gospel and spiritual songs recorded by Cash in the 1970s and 1980s.

The first 20 songs on disc one were previously released on the “A Believer Sings The Truth” album in 1979, and four of the remaining five appeared on the album “I Believe…” in 1984. The final track on the first disc is “Truth.”

The second disc commences with 12 tracks recorded for an LP in 1975 that was never released. Two of these tracks were subsequently released on compilations, but the remainder are making their official debut. Disc two continues with 10 tracks that comprised the rare 1983 LP “Johnny Cash – Gospel Singer,” followed by four unreleased tracks from those sessions.

“Bootleg Vol. IV: The Soul of Truth” is available on April 3 in the US/Canada and April 2 in the UK. The full tracklist and pre-order information are available at: