Country music has had few figures transcend genre and generation like the iconic Johnny Cash. Though he passed away in 2003, his media presence has never been stronger than in the present day, which is partially attributable to the film “Walk the Line.” The biographical movie had a major impact on the resurgence of interest in Cash, but it was his recordings with producer Rick Rubin in 1994 that served to reach a new audience and unprecedented record sales for the Man in Black.
On Thursday, Feb. 22, Winstons will host the third annual “Cash Only” concert, celebrating Cash. While classified as a country performer, Cash’s songs have always been more universal in appeal, touching on pop, rock and blues. A 16-act bill featuring some of San Diego’s best-loved performers, including former Beat Farmer Joey Harris, top-rated Cash tribute act Cash’d Out and troubadour Gregory Page. Also on hand will be Sara Petite, Peter Bolland, Nisha Rose, The Palominos, Mark DeCerbo & Four Eyes, The Hideaways, Podunk Nowhere, Cowboy Jack, The Seventh Day Buskers and Big Rig Deluxe as well as event organizer Chuck Schiele with his Ocean Beach Bourbon Boys.
For his part, country singer Peter Bolland is a fan of all of Cash’s music, but he prefers the songs that bookended his career. He said he admires Cash’s musical clarity and simplicity.
“Most artists don’t have the guts to be that naked,” Bolland said. “It takes great courage to sing a three-chord, two-minute, one-theme song.”
Rocker Mark DeCerbo concurs, adding that the uniqueness of Cash’s voice is a big part of the appeal. “His voice won’t let you tune him out,” DeCerbo said. “When I hear his voice, he is speaking right to me. It’s like if God suddenly started talking to you from the heavens.”
DeCerbo nominates “Tennessee Flat-Top Box” as his group’s favorite Cash tune because the story line is the “dream of every kid who ever picked up a guitar and got hooked.”
Singer-songwriter Nisha Rose pointed out that Cash was not only a fine songwriter, but also a great interpreter of other composers’ works, perhaps a key to his longtime popularity.
“It’s fascinating and miraculous how he has bridged the gap between several generations in his lifetime and in his afterlife,” she said.
For Rose, the work in his last decade was the most important. “Throughout all his illness and loss of the love of his life, June Carter, when most of us would roll up in a cocoon, he still shared his heart with the world.”
Americana favorite Sara Petite will perform a three-song set that night, including “Hey Porter” and “Black Cadillac,” showing her preference for Cash’s ’50s-era rockabilly material. Calling him “the ultimate rebel,” Petite chalks up part of his later successes to his return to a sparser sound similar to his earliest recordings. “(When) he made it big again later in life,” she said, “it wasn’t because he went out looking for a hit. It was because he was true to his roots.”