All-around musical legend Bobby Womack – who announced yesterday that he is cancer-free – is prepping his first album in twelve years, The Bravest Man in the Universe, out June 12th on XL. Until then, you can check out this clip of Womack performing a chilling, stripped-down rendition of album cut "Deep River" at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. 

"'Deep River' is a song that was sung back in the plantation days, where blacks sung to deliver messages," said Womack of the track. "It was like their newspaper, they would talk to each other in the fields. That's what my father used to tell me. He would say, 'They would sing a song, and if it was bad news, they would sing it in a torturing way. If it was good news they would make it happy.' Talking about 'I want to cross over into campground.' Campground was free country. Everybody wanna be free."