I heard this Johnny Cash song for the first time late-evening last night. It's a nice, easy song with some heartfelt lyrics.

I believe this is a live recording from San Quentin and JC gives a little introduction about how he came to know the song -- "There's a young man here at San Quentin tonight that wrote a song..."

What followed flabbergasted me; "He sent me the sheet music on it and I don't know anybody that reads music...I liked the lyrics so much I started singing my own tune to it..."

Taking JC's comments at face value, neither he nor members of his band read music. I know there's plenty of stories out there about musicians and their lack of formal training, little music theory knowledge, etc. But for me, this admission was eye opening. I would have expected someone in the band or someone associated with it to have music reading skills...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv8pI8-ALwc