Personnel includes: Johnny Cash (vocals, acoustic guitar); June Carter Cash, John Carter Cash, Laura Cash, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Carl Perkins, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Greg Fidelman, Flea, John Frusciante, Red Devils, Chad Smith, Marty Stuart, Fiona Apple, Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Tom Morello, Sheryl Crow.

When Johnny Cash passed away in September 2003, American music lost one of its giants, but three months later, Lost Highway posthumously illuminated his legacy with this fascinating five-disc box set. UNEARTHED contains no less than 64 previously unreleased recordings from Cash's AMERICAN RECORDINGS years (essentially 1994-2002) that show the broad range of Cash's interests and interpretive capabilities. Accompanied, for the most part, only by acoustic guitar, he covers Neil Young (the poetic, impressionistic "Pocahontas"), Steve Earle (the rowdy rebel song "Devil's Right Hand"), Jimmy Webb (a tender "Wichita Lineman"), and others.

Cash reaches into the past and future simultaneously, performing duets with younger artists (Fiona Apple on the Cat Stevens tune "Father and Son," Joe Strummer on the Bob Marley evergreen "Redemption Song") and trawling his own memory for the old folk, country, and gospel tunes that influenced him. In fact, an entire disc is devoted to his humble-but-impassioned gospel performances. The emotional authority and overwhelming humanity Cash brings to every song cause one to marvel that these were merely the outtakes from his sessions. On the graveyard-set "The Caretaker," Cash eerily intones "Who's gonna cry when old John dies?" On the basis of this collection alone the answer should be, just about everybody.