Sheryl Crow Revives ‘Redemption Day’ as a Johnny Cash Duet [LISTEN]
The first release from Sheryl Crow's forthcoming duets album is familiar, but new. Crow has re-recorded her 1996 song "Redemption Day" as a duet with the late Johnny Cash; readers can press play above to listen.
Crow first wrote and recorded "Redemption Day" for her self-titled sophomore album, after touring the war-torn country of Bosnia with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. "When I came home from that trip, I was so heavily impacted by what I’d seen, but then on TV the news was covering this awful genocide that was going on in Rwanda," Crow recalls to Taste of Country Nights. "I just couldn’t wrap my brain around why we would go into one country to help people and wouldn’t go into another country."
The Man in Black recorded his own version of "Redemption Day" in 2003, shortly before he did. His version appears on his posthumous 2010 album American VI: Ain't No Grave, and Crow's newly released rendition of the song pairs their vocals together with a new, piano-driven arrangement.
"He was adamant about knowing what every lyric meant, and he really delivered the song in a way that felt like for him it would be the most important song on his record ... but two months later, he passed," Crow explains (quote via Nash Country Daily). "I asked the [Cash] family if they would give me their blessing in letting me use his vocal. I feel like the song has finally found its moment ... I hope he would be proud of what we’ve done and feel like it has met its moment.”
Directed by Shaun Silva, the new music video for "Redemption Day" pairs footage of Crow and Cash with images of a young girl watching major moments in world history on a giant projection screen. Crow herself now has two children, a 9 year old and an 11 year old.
“I think it some ways it really makes you think about what we do in our lives that our children will mimic," she reflects. "And the idea is that there is hope and we’re all going to be on this train at the end of life.”
Crow signed with Big Machine Label Group earlier in 2019 for her new project. It's due out this summer and is, according to BMLG CEO Scott Borchetta, "a one-listen masterpiece that spans her entire career."
Do You Remember Who Originally Sang Sheryl Crow's Parts on Kid Rock's "Picture"?
Johnny Cash + More Country Stars Who Suffered Terrible Tragedies