Rereleasing Cash's Bitter Tears

Supporters try to resurrect "lost" Johnny Cash album

By Cortney HardingOn February 23, a few days before what would have been Johnny Cash's 78th birthday, Lost Highway will release "American VI: Ain't No Grave," the final recordings Cash made with producer Rick Rubin. And as fans celebrate the legacy of one of the most iconic musicians of the last century, some Cash scholars and relatives are trying to tell another, seldom-heard part of the story.

They're lobbying Sony to rerelease his virtually unknown 1964 album "Bitter Tears," a protest album that lamented our nation's institutional mistreatment of Native Americans.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Johnny Cash, Ira Hayes, and Bitter Tears and Tribute to Cash's Bitter Tears.

Below:  "Singer Johnny Cash is shown in producer Rick Rubin's Los Angeles studio in this 2002 publicity photo released to Reuters February 18, 2010." (Reuters/Martyn Atkins/American Recordings/Handout)