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Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow Added To Johnny Cash Tribute Concert

Updated: Tuesday, March 20 2012, 10:52 AM CDT
By Rob Faubion, AustinOnStage.com

Country music legend Willie Nelson and nine-time Grammy Award-winner Sheryl Crow have been added to the all-star lineup for the “We Walk The Line: A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash” concert on April 20 at ACL Live. 

Nelson and Crow will join previously-announced music stars such as Kris Kristofferson, Chris Cornell, Ronnie Dunn, John Hiatt, Amy Lee, Shooter Jennings, Lucinda Williams, Ray LaMontagne and Jamey Johnson to celebrate the life and legacy of Johnny Cash.

In the year that would mark his 80th birthday, the concert will pay tribute to not only Cash and his music, but also to his roots and his heritage.  Grammy Award winner Don Was - who worked with Cash on an album for The Highwaymen - will lead an all-star band that will feature Buddy Miller, Kenny Aronoff, Ian McLagen and Greg Leisz.

“Having had the privilege of working with Johnny Cash on a Highwaymen project in 1995, I was able to experience firsthand the incredible spirit and musical gift that lived within Johnny,” said Was.  “We have an all-star line-up of incredible talent performing the songs that made Johnny a legend including fellow Highwaymen Kris and Willie.  It will be an incredible evening of music of special combinations, duets and jams.”

Cash’s 80th birthday celebration kicked off on February 26, the day which would have been his 80th birthday, with the ground-breaking of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Project in Dyess, Arkansas.  The house where Cash grew up in is now a permanent tribute to him and his family’s early life, as well as a historical reflection of American life during the Great Depression.

In addition, Legacy Recordings - the division of Sony Music Entertainment that serves as the home of Johnny Cash’s music catalog - will celebrate the landmark year with a full slate of projects to be released throughout the next 12 months. A 2-CD, 51-track collection entitled Bootleg Vol. IV: The Soul of Truth, which comprises gospel and spiritual recordings made by Cash in the 1970s and 80s, will be released on April 3.

A percentage of the net proceeds will be donated to Charley’s Fund to help in the fight to find a cure for the fatal children’s disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Tickets are now on sale at Waterloo Records, by phone at 877-4-FLYTIX, and online at acl-live.com.

(Image courtesy Legacy Records)Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow Added To Johnny Cash Tribute Concert