A Duet by Two Legendary Singers Found in Storage Facility

It’s hard to imagine the magnificent and lyrical voices of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash being bottled up in storage. But that’s just what happened until a tape was recently found in a New York storage facility.
 
It wasn’t until recently that the existence of the tape featuring a recording of the two singing a duet, was discovered by Valerie Ervin, the president of the Ray Charles Foundation. While searching the Ray Charles Memorial Library earlier in the year, she discovered two letters in which Charles spoke of the recording.
On Dec. 11, 1981, Cash wrote to Charles: “I hope you like this tape. I realize that the orchestration isn’t big and I don’t sing very good, but I think the thing has a feeling and a quality that the fans would really enjoy.” Cash wrote to Charles that he would like to release the song, "with your permission,” sharing the royalties equally. “Would this be acceptable to you?" he wrote. It was reportedly acceptable, but for unknown reasons the song was never actually released.
After talking to former affiliates and staffers, the Charles’ estate tracked down the copy at a storage facility last June.  The gospel-heavy song, with Cash on lead vocals and Charles singing back-up, was part of Cash's sessions for his album, The Baron, released in 1981.

For fans interested in hearing the found recording, it was just released Oct. 26 on a collection of Charles’ songs titled: “Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters.” The recording by the two artists is of a Kris Kristofferson song called “Why Me Lord?” dated 1981. 


When the two singers join together a collaboration of country and soul takes place. Besides “Crazy Old Soldier,” a duet recorded for the 1984 album “Friendship,” Cash and Charles had never released a song together.


Johnny Cash is primarily remembered as a country music artist, but his songs spanned many other genres, including rockabilly, rock and roll, as well as blues, folk, and gospel. Some of his greatest hits included “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Walk the Line,” and “Ring of Fire.”

Ray Charles was a pioneer in the genre of soul music. Early in his career during the 1950s, he fused rhythm & blues, gospel, and blues. Some of his hit recordings were “I Got a Woman” and “Georgia on My Mind.”


“Lost Charles & Cash Duet Found in Storage.” Contactmusic.com. Oct. 29, 2010.

“Lost Ray Charles and Johnny Cash Duet Found.” Spinner. Oct. 28, 2010.

“Lost Johnny Cash and Ray Charles Duet Surfaces.” Guardian.co.uk. Oct. 28, 2010.