Redemption Day - Commentary

Cheryl Crow has put together what some might consider the album of a lifetime

There are 17 tracks on this album with some of the most incredible collaborators

And it's called "Threads"

It is available now and so we've been talking to Cheryl about all the songs on this album

Because, obviously, she can tell the stories better than anybody

And we are up to Redemption Day, and talk about a special song

She is singing with the late Johnny Cash

So, Cheryl, tell me, how did this version of this song come to be?

So Redemption Day has a long story, and it goes back to a trip I made to Bosnia with Hillary Clinton

I played for the troops, I'd never seen anything like a war-torn area in my life

I'd only seen it on the evening news during early days

Or late days of Vietnam when people were coming home

On the evening news, wrapped in flags and caskets, and

That was my relationship to war

And it was very ominous, but it wasn't everywhere

It wasn't 24-hour news back then, so it was a deep, disturbing relationship to me

To see what war looked like in person

So I came home and I wrote this song called "Redemption Day"

Put it out on, I guess, my second record

Which luckily had some hits on it, and

So people probably heard it because back then you bought an album

And you heard the album cuts

Well, cut to many years later, in 2003

Johnny Cash recorded it right before he passed away

And we had many conversations about the song

And he loved the song and felt like it was really important

For that moment, and he wanted it to come out then

And then he passed away

And the song didn't actually come out for many years

And, so, this song now has sort of reappeared

And has a whole new message for what's happening

So I guess in the best case scenario when you write a song

You hope it's gonna outlive everything

It's gonna be timeless, it's gonna have meaning for all the ages

But I feel like it's really presented itself now as having found its moment

And having Johnny Cash on it, having his vocal on it

His original vocal that he did in his cabin

It just brings so much weight to the song

And brings a seriousness and a depth to it

That I think kind of announces the song's moment

And brings a lot of meaning to what we're going through

And who we are at this moment in our evolution

And if you haven't seen the video, it also is incredibly powerful

It's available on YouTube now, and this is Cheryl Crow and the late Johnny Cash

Redemption Day, of her new album, Threads