Various Artists
Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited
(Sony Masterworks) Four stars
Throughout his career, Johnny Cash sang about the downtrodden, giving a voice to the voiceless. But his 1964 concept album, Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian, started a new conversation about social awareness.
The collection of songs, written by Cash and Peter La Farge, provided strong commentary about the United States government's mistreatment of Native Americans. Now, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, The Milk Carton Kids and others transform Cash's political statement into a rootsy collection in the new album, Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited. Kristofferson handles the original album's biggest track, The Ballad of Ira Hayes, with help from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Other standout performances include Harris taking on Apache Tears, a heartfelt version of The Talking Leaves with Nancy Blake supported by Harris, Welch and Rawlings, and Rhiannon Giddens' haunting cover of The Vanishing Race. The cover album also includes three additional tracks: reprises of As Long as the Grass Shall Grow and Apache Tears, and a track left off the original called Look Again to the Wind.
