Backing Track Johnny Cash Style

Did you use band in a box?

I don't know nothing played when I clicked on the songs

Soundcloud has been making some changes, Russ, but you can usually count on it.  These links take about 10-15 to start playing.
Be sure to have this link.  https://soundcloud.com/ed_shaw
You should see a playlist top front,  the list with a freight rider next to it.  See if you can get any of the Soundcloud lnks to play, not
just the one on my page. If they won' play, I'll email them to you.
I have that same progression in 12 keys, a variety of tempos. It makes a good practice routine.  Say start just by playing whole notes
half notes, or the same note four time per bar, starting with G. Then, when the chord changes for the second bar, to C, then play that
note. And so on. Now, the second time around, the bar number five, play G on a different string, different position.
Let's say you started first time around playing GCDG in the six position -- fret 10-13 -- playing the G on the 12th fret.  Now, next time
around, you drop to position five, and play the G on the A String. Get what I mean?  So you hop around the neck picking off those
patterns.
Then when you go back to playing, you got better, more free, more sure of the notes. I highly recommend it and will do what it takes
to get you the tracks.   
Remeber, you can download tracks from soundcloud, but from the main page, not the playlist.

@Phill learning improvisation is one answer.

Backing tracks are so useful for song writers, I wanted to throw this out to the forum.  There are literally hundreds of backing tracks,
thousands if you include karaoke with the track mix feature.  People are using them because they work.
I didn't want to go into an area of conflict with the  Chordie supported teaching site, but I  did want to provide forum members with a
little different look on things. This technology has been a help to me, in both playing and song writing.
We have not affected the true and eternal art of popular, folk, or rock song composing. We still have that moment of inspiration.  The
need for expression has not gone away. When a song either comes to us whole or we grind it out based on theme, a phrase (musical or lyrical)
we go back to the same old challenge, only with some high tech tools. The end of the typewriter was not the end of literature.
Yes, this techno mix stuff drives me a little crazy, too. We just accept as a fact of life that a couple of studios specializing in techno loops are
producing most of the commercial hip hop  in the world. We even see Nashville has turned music production into a manufacturing process.
(Remember The Trashmill ?)
Like all tools, use it but don't abuse it. We used metronomes forever. Metronomes discipline and train, but they also teach that most valuable
skill that in the interplay between live drummer and other voices, or left and right hand, which produced probably the single most advance in
our music history, syncopation -- American jazz.  You can strum square time until the cows come home, and get swell at it. But like the man
says, "If it don't have that swing, it don't mean a thing."

I've not seen one of those on line production sites.  I'd like to see one. I have seen Karoake makers who
provide separate tracks as a package, so you can mix your own.
I found this, looking. this kind of music is timeless:  http://www.thesixtyone.com/sonicstatues/
That's Rich Murray.
From what I have seen, the break point is not so much skill level or experience as much as
it is the circumstances of one's personal journey.  The entering musician is way ahead of
previous generations thanks to things like electronic teaching pianos, you know, the ones
with the built in sounds. When I wanted to learn keyboard, I picked up a $49 half sized
Yamaha that made all the difference in the world. maybe that's why I remain a fan of
computer generated.  We have come a long way since the days of the Lowery Music Center
in the mall.
Some feel that when the mechanical element comes in, the human element must
necessarily be compromised.

Whatever makes you feel good about yourself, Russ, I'm all for it.

Hogwash to some. I'd rather think of it as taking playing and songwriting to the next level,
crawling, in a sense, before taking off in a run.  The discipline gained by structure can result in
touches that elude many musicians, even masterful ones. 

For example, here is "Ladies Love Outlaws" on the current Chordie index.
Original "Ladies"  on Chordie:
(D) Bessie was a lovely child from (G) West Tennessee   
(A)Leroy was an outlaw (D) hard and mean
One day she saw him standing and it (G) chilled her to the bone
She (A) knew she had to see that look on a (D) child of her own

Now, don't get me wrong. I have a file of songs , almost two hundred country,
most of then  taken from Chordie, that I learned and played for as long as
Chordie has been  around. I owe the people who produce Chordie a great debt
of gratitude.
As a result of using composition software such as Band in a Box and the Alesis
SR18, it is second nature for me to now take that lead sheet and put it to
a form that anyone could play. (Sorry for the key change. The progression
remains the same. It looks like this.

Jam Chart:
Verse
CC/FF/GG/CC/
CC/FF/GG/GC/
Chorus
CC/FF/GG/CC/
CC/FF/GG/GC/

The great thing about Chordie is that the songs are guides. I say that is
a good thing because that makes the players do work too. When the players
do work, they learn and get better.
There are two main corrections to  the first version.
1. The second line of the chorus is a change to the one chord, not shown.
2. The last bar is a change from the five to the one. It is two beats of
the five and two beats of the one, not four beats of the one.

That last little timing change, "on a (A) child of her (D) own" can make
all the difference in producing a professional sound.
Yeah, I know some will say, "Yeah, but you are just covering -- copying what
some one else did."  I know the difference between original and cover. Cover
is how I earned.

Yeah, Band in a Box. You can't beat it.

I think this thread has gone a little off the songwriting forum general aims which are "A place to discuss songwriting and to share your own work with fellow musicians" Backing tracks like them or loath them have I believe some merit in promoting better playing but that's just my opinion whether they belong in the songwriting forum I'm not so sure. Like jeff says stay civil and enjoy your selves.:)
ark