Country music has had many legendary figures, but few have blazed a trail quite like legend Johnny Cash. Though Cash’s songs have always been popular, the recent movie “Walk the Line” brought the Man in Black back into the spotlight. There are a number of tribute acts on the road today performing Cash’s material, but none come close to what Cash’d Out has achieved. The band has built its own loyal following, packing clubs throughout the Southland, with an upcoming appearance at The Casbah Friday, Nov. 3.
“We all admire and respect Johnny Cash, love his music and his storytelling, and want to do our small part to keep his memory alive,” said frontman Douglas Benson.
The trio of musicians strives for authenticity. “We try pretty hard to get it to a ‘T,'” Benson laughed. “We utilize the upright bass and vintage guitars and amps to re-create the sound as authentically as possible. Besides Johnny’s voice, the sound that his backing band – the Tennessee Two (and later the Tennessee Three) – made told you right away who you were listening to.”
Ironically, despite Cash’s instrument of choice being the guitar, it’s the percussion that’s the most difficult to re-create. “The tricky part is the drumming,” Benson said. “A lot of the early recordings had no drums, just Johnny strummin’ his guitar with notebook paper strung through the strings. We’ve done a little research and found old videos of his live performances, like when he played (1950s television show) Town Hall Party, and live recordings help a lot. So, if we don’t play it like it’s comin’ right off the vinyl, we play it like you would’ve seen it if you got a chance to see the Man in Black.”
The group’s quest for accuracy in both look and sound has made the difference to their fans. “We do get comments on our attention to detail and how it really sounds like the real deal,” he remarked. “One of those positive comments came from Lou Robin, who was Johnny’s manager for more than three decades.”
Benson attributes their success to the appeal of Cash’s music, with songs like “Ring of Fire” and “I Walk the Line” ingrained in the public consciousness. “The audiences really cover the music fan spectrum,” he noted. “We’ve got some older folks that get out to the shows, right on down to kids who don’t look like they’re old enough to be in the bar! Really, everyone loves Johnny Cash: country folks, rock and roll types, punk rockers, the beach crowd, bikers, you name it.”
He marvels at the fact that their audience sometimes follows them from performance to performance.
“We have a lot of familiar faces in the crowd at all our shows,” he said. “Even when we play out of town there’ll be a few San Diegans out there making us feel at home.”
While some might find playing the music of one performer limiting, Benson doesn’t think the band will ever stray from Cash’s catalog.
“We’ve had people ask us to do songs by other artists and do them like Cash would’ve,” he said. “It’s an interesting idea, but right now we’ve got 80-some-odd songs that we do, so that leaves more than 1,420 Johnny Cash songs to work on before we think about other stuff.”