Looks like we’ll be starting the new year with a bang! A Johnny Cash 8-pack coming our way AND a FREE pack of the nine Harmonix band songs from Rock Band 2!

Johnny Cash

Cry, Cry, Cry

Don’t Take Your Guns to Town

Five Feet High and Rising

Folsom Prison Blues

I Got Stripes

I Walk the Line *

Tennessee Flat Top Box *

The Ballad of Ira Hayes

* Denotes Pro-Guitar/Bass chart availability for an additional $.99

The Johnny Cash pack is available for $13.49 (1,080 MSP). Immediately below is a preview of the pack from RockBand.com. Full samples of the songs is included further below, as usual.

Rock Band 2 FREE Pack (Xbox 360 and PS3 only)

Abnormality – Visions

Anarchy Club – Get Clean

Bang Camaro – Night Lies

Breaking Wheel – Shoulder to the Plow

Libyans – Welcome to the Neighborhood

The Main Drag – A Jagged Gorgeous Winter

Speck – Conventional Lover

The Sterns – Supreme Girl

That Handsome Devil – Rob the Prez-O-Dent

Note: The Rock Band 2 songs in this FREE pack do NOT include RB3 features such as harmonies, keyboards, or pro-guitar/bass. They are only available as a pack, as well, not as singles. [Via HMXPope]

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UPDATE: Over on the RockBand.com forums, HMXHenry attempted to explain the situation behind the some of the complaints that people are having over the FREE pack.

On the lack of availability of the Rock Band 2 Harmonix band pack on the Wii:

Free DLC, as with paid DLC, isn’t something that we’re able to set without 1st party consent. We submitted this HMX pack to all 3 consoles and for whatever reason only MS and Sony agreed to offer the free pack so that’s why it’s only going to be available on the 360 and PS3. It’s obviously in our best interest to make these songs available to everyone that wants them (and there’s no reason why we wouldn’t want Wii owners to have a chance to play these songs) but unfortunately it’s not a process that we have complete control over.

On the lack of Rock Band 3 upgrades (harmonies, keyboards, Pro-Guitar/Bass) to the Rock Band 2 Harmonix band pack:

I’m sure that going back and re authoring those songs, most of them from scratch, would have prevented them from being released as free and that’s not in the spirit of what we were trying to do with these songs. These songs were held over from the RB2 export for a variety of licensing reasons, as well as in the interest of keeping the already huge export file size manageable.

On the lack of the Rock Band 2 Harmonix band pack being released as singles as well:

As for why these songs are only available as a pack and not as singles, I don’t know the answer off hand. We’ll check in with the Audio team, but many people are out of the office during the holiday week (me included, posting from home!) and we may not have an answer until the DLC comes out next week. I’ll follow up when we know more.

[Official announcement]