See The Man In Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash at the Wellmont Theater on Saturday, April 12th!
The Man In Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash is the Johnny Cash tribute you don’t want to miss! With his strikingly similar looks, baritone voice, and spot-on mannerisms, Shawn Barker’s uncanny resemblance to the original “Man In Black” revitalizes the true character and spirit of America’s greatest musical icon Johnny Cash for a truly one-of-a-kind show.
Johnny Cash, or as he’s lovingly referred to as The Man in Black, was born in 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas. Raised on gospel music, Cash originally tried to get signed to a record deal with Sun Records by singing gospel which was turned down. Not to be discouraged, Cash changed his sound to a more rockabilly style and landed the deal, going on to release “Hey Porter” and “Cry! Cry! Cry!” in 1955.
Johnny Cash would release some of his biggest hits early in his career, including “I Walk the Line”, “Home of the Blues”, and his usual opener “Folsom Prison Blues”. In 1958, he would sign a new deal with Columbia Records and release the hit single “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town”. In the 1960’s, Cash’s fame would continue to rise, as he would release arguably his biggest song in a rendition of “Ring of Fire”. The song is regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time, with Rolling Stone calling it the greatest country song ever and CMT giving it the 4th best spot.
Starting in the late 50’s, Johnny Cash would perform free concerts at prisons. A handful of these performances were recorded, with 1968’s Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and 1969’s Johnny Cash at San Quentin were extremely successful, with both albums peaking at number one on the Billboard country album charts.
Later in his career, Cash was a part of the Highwaymen, a country music supergroup that had Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson alongside the Man in Black. Around this time, a recording from when Cash was first getting started at Sun Records was released. Million Dollar Quartet (1981), or sometimes referred to as Elvis Presley: The Million Dollar Quartet, was an impromptu jam session in 1956 with four of rock and roll’s biggest icons in Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, the soon-to-be Man in Black, and Elvis Presley.
Towards the end of his career, Johnny Cash experienced a commercial rebirth, as newer and younger bands in different genres began to either work with Cash or his previous recordings, with ‘Til Things Are Brighter (1988) being a tribute album to Cash from mostly British indie bands really kicking things off. He would also join punk band One Bad Pig for a version of “Man in Black”, as well as joining U2 for “The Wanderer” to close out their Zooropa (1993) album. This rejuvenation continued when Rick Rubin signed him to his American Recordings label, leading to the Man in Black’s final four albums before his death.
The four American Recordings albums primarily featured Cash covering more modern songs, such as Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on the Wire”, Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage”, and Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man”, with a handful of songs written by other artists for Cash like the Glenn Danzig penned “Thirteen”. The biggest song to come from the quartet of albums comes from Cash’s sixty-seventh and final non-posthumous release American Recordings IV: The Man Comes Around (2002) in his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was worried that the song would be somewhat gimmicky, but upon its release, Reznor was so moved that he went on to say “that song isn’t mine anymore”.
In September the next year, Cash, having lost his wife June less than four months prior, passed away at the age of 71.
Tickets are on sale now at welmonttheater.com.
