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At 42, Jonathan Holiff is finally getting to know his father -- the man behind The Man in Black, Johnny Cash.

His father is dead. But Jonathan is getting to know his dad better in death than in life.

When his mother called from Nanaimo in March 2005 to break the news that his father, Saul Holliff, Cash's long-time manager, had taken his own life, Jonathan went into an emotional tailspin.

Putting a successful business on hold, the Hollywood talent agent and entrepreneur sold most of his belongings and drove north from Los Angeles to Nanaimo in his black Chevy Tahoe, hoping to escape the shadow of the father he'd been estranged from for 20 years.

"He didn't leave a note. Not a word, not a piece of clothing, a gold record, a picture -- nothing," recalls Jonathan. His father, a resident of Victoria since the early 1980s until moving to Nanaimo in 1999, had been in declining health before his suicide at 79.

Jonathan moved to Nanaimo and lived with his mother, Barbara, 74, for a while, leaving his lucrative Los Angeles business on "auto-pilot."

"I needed time to think and start a new chapter in my life that would have nothing to do with showbiz because I equated that with emotional disturbance."

Far from escaping his father, Jonathan ended up immersed in Saul's life with Cash. The result is two months into production: a first-person film documentary called My Father and The Man in Black. It tells the story of Johnny and Saul from Jonathan's point of view. "I'm using the exploration of their relationship to inform me about my own relationship with my father."

He's well aware that people will see the film -- if it's finished -- because Johnny Cash is in it. "But the fact is, this is a universal story of fathers and sons -- fathers with impossible expectations and sons who fail to meet them."

Jonathan and his younger brother, Joshua, had what appeared to be a fairy tale childhood. As kids they got to play with the Man in Black -- a superhero-like figure mentioned so often that Jonathan remembers thinking Johnny Cash was their father.

A who's who of country music stars came to their house. Jonathan, born in 1965 -- the year Johnny was famously arrested in El Paso, Texas for smuggling prescription drugs from Mexico -- only recently learned he did his first Johnny Cash tour when he was just nine months old and on the road to Rochester, N.Y., in March of 1966.

The morning after performing a concert at Toronto's venerable O'Keefe Centre, Johnny was found unconscious in his motor home in the parking lot of the Four Seasons Hotel, recalls Jonathan. Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers, who had worked in a mortuary, couldn't find a pulse and feared Johnny had died. Miraculously, he was revived in time to perform two sold-out shows in Rochester that night -- assuaging Saul's fears he'd be targeted by the mob for Johnny pulling yet another no-show.

Growing up in the orbit of a pop culture phenomenon was a fitfully exciting, surreal and sometimes wonderful life, says Jonathan, but it was overshadowed by friction at home.

In contrast to his father's reputation as a charismatic raconteur and hometown hero in London, Ont., he was controlling, emotionally abusive and neglectful on the homefront, says his son matter-of-factly.

(Saul also managed Carl Perkins, Tommy Hunter, the Statler Brothers, June Carter and the Carter Family, and George Jones.)

Jonathan was not quite 10 when Saul walked away from Johnny Cash for good in 1973. He was 47 and had represented the rebel recording star since 1960, a period highlighted by his live recordings at Folsom and San Quentin prisons.

Saul had "quit" the mercurial musician at least four times during those turbulent years on the road. He fielded lawsuits and dealt with his superstar client's bookings, arrests, trials, drug addiction and binge-drinking. Saul was also the architect of Johnny's divorce from his first wife, Vivian Liberto, while his future wife June Carter tried to get Johnny clean and sober.

Saul and the legendary hellraiser parted amicably after 13 years, marking the end of a volatile love-hate partnership between opposites: The hard-living Southern Baptist from Arkansas, and the sober-minded atheist Jew from Canada who took Johnny Cash from dance halls and rodeos to Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Europe and Asia.

With Saul back home after years on the road, the father-and-son relationship deteriorated. Jonathan left home at 18 and never looked back.

"He quit being my father the same way he quit being Johnny's manager," says Jonathan, recalling how Saul told him as a youngster he wasn't "good enough" and wouldn't amount to anything. Jonathan took the criticism as gospel.

"My father was a celebrity. Why would I believe he was wrong? He must be right because everyone thinks he walks on water."

Fifteen years ago, in a misguided bid to get his father's attention, if not love, Jonathan pursued the kind of Hollywood success Saul apparently valued. He achieved it, but to his dismay his father was indifferent.

As far-fetched as it sounds, the former Mount Douglas High School and University of Victoria student says he saw his father a total of 17 days over the past 20 years. Saul, a born accountant, pointed out that fact the last time they saw each other.

Jonathan theorizes his dad's mathematical logic and pro-and-con checklists -- Saul's most fulfilling "pro" was going back to school at age 50 and graduating with an honours bachelor of arts in history at UVic -- might have figured in his death. "He was basically tallying up his life to justify he had done all he could and it was the time to go -- on his terms."

By chance, Jonathan made a therapeutic and life-changing discovery in Nanaimo in the fall of 2006 after taking long walks on beaches where he contemplated channelling his talents into a non-profit organization or the environment. Whatever it would take to help him not have anything more to do with Saul Holiff.

The discovery was a motherlode of memorabilia in a storage locker.

"What I found blew me away. He kept everything," says Jonathan.

"I came to this as a hostile witness," admits Jonathan, who unearthed Saul's memories the day after seeing Walk the Line at Nanaimo's Galaxy Theatre with his brother and mother, who was also Saul's secretary when he worked for Cash.

Although there was no mention of Saul in Walk the Line, Jonathan found himself flashing back to his childhood and wondering what his father had been going through when he was born.

He found answers -- and a degree of closure -- in the trove of letters, gold records, telegrams, photographs, lobby cards from Madison Square Garden and other famous places Saul had booked Johnny to play.

The most dramatic were in a box labelled Corporate Minutes. It contained an audio diary Saul kept from 1966 until the day he died. In it, he recounted his private thoughts about his relationship with his family and his experiences with Cash. The diary totalled 66 hours -- and Jonathan believes it was his father's form of self-analysis.

"He refused even to consider such pansy things as psychology and psychiatrists."

Jonathan is both spooked and fascinated by recollections in his father's voice, many made when his father was the same age that he is now.

Half the diaries concern Saul's battles with alcoholism. "Saul also laments his long absences from his sons and that he was a bad father. All of these revelations, I only learned after I discovered these materials after he killed himself."

It took the discovery of the tapes for him to "learn who my father was," he says.

Did it make him feel that his father loved him? "Yes. You're going to have to see the movie, obviously, to find out how."

Listening to the tapes that he never realized existed, Jonathan made an amazing self-discovery. "I realized I was part of the Johnny Cash story, more than I ever dreamed or knew."

His mother suggested Jonathan write a book, which led him to create, with her blessing, My Father and The Man in Black, the foundation for the first-person film he's working on.

Answering questions he had been asking his whole life, it would tell the "inside story" -- one that bears little resemblance to Walk the Line.

One of the most haunting and recurrent questions has been why Saul would quit Cash in his prime, and never work again.

"Managers don't quit superstars, they get fired," says Jonathan. "My father walked away. He realized Johnny had peaked."

After Jonathan was 10, Johnny was no longer mentioned.

When Saul retired young in 1973, he was well-off and never worked another day in his life.

He went back to university, read extensively and travelled widely, often with his wife, and sometimes for 10 months at a time. Trips included Russia, China and Ukraine, where Saul tried without success to learn more about his father's family, who had lived in a shtetl-- a Jewish settlement -- near Kiev. The family has never been able to locate relatives with the same surname.

As well, Saul "practically drank himself to death," says Jonathan.

His mother's only condition for the movie project was a request to see what Jonathan's research had turned up. She looked, and deemed there was nothing that needed to be omitted.

"I've got a lot of respect for truth and legacy," says Barbara, who attended many of the events and concerts that will be depicted in the film.

During a two-year hiatus to write his film script, Jonathan spent hours listening to tapes, reading letters and reviewing microfiche in libraries. He travelled to six cities to interview subjects including drummer W.S. "Fluke" Holland and lead guitarist Bob Wooten of Johnny Cash's band the Tennessee Three, and other eyewitnesses to events revealed in Saul's archives.

Buoyed by positive feedback from Hollywood associates, Jonathan says he's letting Saul and Johnny tell their own story through letters and audio diaries.

The revelations include Saul's early decision to position Johnny as being unique. Setting his client apart from Nashville and the country music label, he paved the way for Johnny's crossover success by proclaiming "Nobody but nobody is more original than Johnny Cash."

Jonathan's concept blends home movie and concert footage, never-before-seen correspondence, interviews and digital animation of photographs, and graphics "that will make the movie not unlike The Kid Stays in the Picture on a roller-coaster," he says, referring to the inventively engaging autobiography of legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans.

My Father and The Man in Black is expected to be released by next fall -- provided funding comes through.

As producer/director, Jonathan has secured $250,000 US, which should underwrite six more months of filming, restoring and digitizing Johnny Cash memorabilia.

The independent film will cost $1.5 million to $2 million US and he's about to put out feelers hoping a single "angel investor" will ante up more than $1 million. That way, he won't have to "monkey around" with competing demands from a lot of stakeholders.

While My Father and The Man in Black chronicles the rocky Cash-Holiff relationship -- the "endless conflict," as Saul once described it, and is fuelled by their respective addictions to pills and the bottle. But the documentary also acknowledges their brilliance and respect for each other.

One of the many eye-opening stories in the film, which opens with shots of its narrator driving to Canada after learning his father killed himself, focuses on what really prompted Cash to change his ways and quit drugs in 1967.

Featuring a soundtrack by The Tennessee Three, the documentary also features reminiscences of fans who were at the Feb. 22, 1968, concert in London, Ont. where Cash proposed onstage to Carter.

Last month, after getting into his SUV with boxes of memorabilia for the drive back to Los Angeles to develop the film, Jonathan took a significant detour.

With cinematographer Chris Walker, he returned to Folsom and San Quentin in northern California. It was to match present-day shots with archival footage of the prisons where Cash made music history and revitalized his career performing seminal live concerts on Jan. 13, 1968 (Folsom) and Feb. 24, 1969 (San Quentin), popularizing Folsom Prison Blues and A Boy Named Sue.

"They welcomed and treated me with such graciousness I was beside myself with glee," said Jonathan, who gave each of the prison wardens a gift from the Holiff archives.

Folsom warden Matthew Kramer, who met Jonathan in the Folsom Museum and in the room where Cash performed his legendary concert got a one-of-a-kind photograph of the country legend. Dated Nov. 8, 1966, it was a classic prison "mug shot" of Johnny Cash that had been taken by prison guards just for fun during his first visit to Folsom.

Robert Ayers, Jr., the San Quentin warden who had worked as a prison telephone operator back in 1969 and "was the last guy in the door for the concert" got a framed original press release on Johnny Cash's letterhead announcing the British documentary filming of the San Quentin concert.

Going behind bars to those famous institutions that were such a prominent feature of Cash's career were surreal experiences that Jonathan says he could never have imagined he would some day be having.

"I came here to get away from my father but I ran right into him," he observes, adding that by studying Saul and his relationship with Johnny, it helped inform him about how and why he was the way he was.

Although doing the documentary is as cathartic as creative, Jonathan insists it's not exploitative.

"I'm not doing this for money or publicity. I'm doing it solely as a means to reconcile with my father. When I finished writing the script and found out how much people liked it, that's all I'll ever need. If it gets made, great. If it doesn't, so be it."

Movie or no movie, Jonathan has accomplished his key goal: "I found a way in. I found a way to reconcile with my father, and it was a lot cheaper than hiring a shrink."

mreid@tc.canwest.com

****

"Cash for a Cure," a fundraiser for a genetic defect known as Fragile X, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at Graham Theater at Asheville School. Buddy, Carol, Jamie and their Vintage Band will provide the music for this benefit concert. The show will focus on songs of Johnny Cash, June Carter and the early stars of vintage country.

Fragile X is the leading known inherited cause for autism, as well as the leading cause of genetically inherited mental impairment, according to a press release. It affects one out of every 4,000 boys and one out of every 6,000 girls, making it more common than muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. One in every 260 women is a carrier and most children with Fragile X are born into families with no history of mental impairment.

Results from Fragile X research could lead to cures for such conditions as autism, anxiety disorders and manic-depressive illness. Many experts believe that the cure for Fragile X will be a model for curing autism.

"Cash for a Cure" was inspired by a recent challenge from Doris Buffett, president and founder of the Sunshine Lady Foundation. After donating $500,000 to the Fragile X Research Foundation, the nonprofit organization founded by parents of children with Fragile X, she has now promised to match any new money raised by Nov. 1.

There is no admission charge for the concert. Goodwill offerings will be collected. For more information, call 254-6345, ext. 4024 or visit www.cashforacure. com or www.buddycaroljamie.com.

****

By Skip Descant
Dispatch Starkville Bureau
sdescant@cdispatch.com

Tuesday, August 28, 2007 11:46 AM CDT

STARKVILLE - They came from local schools, states as far away as Arizona and even a Mississippi penitentiary in Bolivar County.

“I'm currently incarcerated and have limited access to art supplies,” wrote Bolivar County Correctional Facility inmate No. 126970, in a letter he mailed with his entry for the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival poster contest. His poster - one of 26 entries - was four taped together sheets of paper with carefully-drawn flowers colored with crayon, twining their way around the bars of a jail cell. It came with the tagline ?? days celebrating 1 night in the Starkville City Jail.”

To his mom and friends, No. 126970 is Anthony Lee “Andy” Shurden, 38, of Starkville. He entered the Bolivar County prison in June 2007 after a February conviction in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court on first offense charges for the sale of cocaine.

“Oh, he loves Johnny Cash, he loves music,” said Judy Cascio, Shurden's mother, who lives in Starkville.

“And he loves to draw. I wish you could see some of the things he's sent me,” added Cascio.

Also in the letter Shurden wrote - in neat blue script on lined notepaper - was a sort of half apology, that though his design was likely not the most artistic, he hoped the festival committee might consider incorporating the line about ?? days celebrating 1 night in the Starkville City Jail.” The committee agreed.

So when they juried the posters last week and selected a watercolor by Zach Crowell, a 26-year-old graphic artist in Phoenix, as the winning entry, they decided to add Shurden's tagline on the festival poster.

“Andy's going to be thrilled to hear that,” said his mother.

Crowell's design has a silhouette of Cash walking away from the viewer with his guitar slung over his back. The whole piece is a wash of dark grays and blues.

“What I did for this poster was to reference him (Cash) in a sort of surreal fashion,” said Crowell Monday, speaking from Phoenix, who added, yes, he's a Cash fan, and yes, he'll be coming to the festival.

“He's great, and this contest gave me an opportunity to do something,” remarked Crowell. “My boss, as a congratulation, is going to send me and my girlfriend out to Starkville. We've never been.”

But for a festival with its heart in redemption and renewal - two themes often trumpeted by its organizers - it may be Shurden who's the poster boy.

He's serving six years for his first offense drug charge, a sentence his mom says both she and he have come to accept as one of life's trials. And also, a source of strength.

“He's made a mistake,” said Cascio. “And he knows that. He's paying his price.”

“And Andy is definitely a different person today. He's real active in the religious activities in the jail. There's been a whole change in his attitude,” Shurden's mom explained.

A graduate of Starkville High and Mississippi State University, Shurden went on to work in mortgage lending in Southaven. He's also a dad with four kids, ages 16, 7, 5 and 3. The events leading up to his arrest seem complicated, but according to his mother, Shurden was set up by someone he thought was a buddy.

“This is a prime example of how our judicial system is broken,” said Robert Rhett of Columbus, a member of First Baptist Church. Rhett is involved in prison ministry and met Shurden when he was briefly held at Parchman Penitentiary.

“I think we really connected,” remarked Rhett.

“This man has no business being a burden on our tax dollars,” he added.

“I tell you, there's no difference in the things he's done and the things I've done. The only difference is I didn't get caught,” remarked Rhett.

For festival organizers and fans alike, the campus concert which led to a late night of drinking and got Cash thrown in jail in Starkville more than 40 years ago has not lost its meaning and relevance.

“And like each of us, Johnny had to struggle with the life he had,” festival organizer Robbie Ward told the West Point Rotary club last Wednesday. “But his message was hope.”

“You can see the struggles of his life in his face,” explained West Point attorney and Cash fan Joshua Stevens Jr., talking to the Rotarians about Johnny Cash at Zeke Marie's restaurant in West Point. “He understands. He cares.”

The Johnny Cash Flower Pickin festival will be held in Starkville Nov. 2-4. For more information, go to www.pardonjohnnycash.com.

****

FOR MUSIC LOVERS: Man in Black to get flower pickin' pardon

After performing at Mississippi State University in 1965, Cash spent a night in the slammer when Starkville police arrested him for public drunkenness. Cash claimed he was simply "pickin' flowers," said Robbie Ward, 29, a Starkville resident who came up with the idea for the festival.

"It's time for Starkville to pardon Johnny Cash," Ward said. At the festival, a symbolic, posthumous pardon will be given on the Man in Black's behalf after a minister delivers a short sermon on redemption. Scheduled events include performances by Johnny Cash tribute bands and other musicians, a showing of the 2005 biopic "Walk the Line" and a talk by Cash's former bass player and tour manager Marshall Grant.

"We're gonna have a lot of colorful people there," Ward said.

The festival is free, but organizers are asking for a $10 donation for local charities. Pardonjohnnycash.com.

****

The son of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash has returned to the country legend's boyhood home to look for traces of his father and pick some cotton.

John Carter Cash has been in northeast Arkansas since Tuesday. The 37-year-old Cash said it's part of a personal venture to understand his father and Dyess, the town the Cash family called home.

"My father talked about the cotton farm, and the flood, many times," Cash said. "He not only talked about it, it inspired him to write about it as well. His Arkansas roots were always a part of who he was, and he was proud of that. When I visit the places he walked and played, it brings to life many stories he told me about living here."

Johnny Cash, born in Kingsland in 1932, moved to Dyess with his family as a child. With no money down, the Cash family was given 20 acres and a 5-room house in which to live. The house is still standing just west of Dyess, and the current owner gave him a tour.

"He was interested in walking through the house and stopped to ask questions along the way," Willie Stegall said. "He was especially interested in his father's room. Before he left he took a pod of okra and a brick from the back yard. He said he planned to plant the okra in his garden."

Mayor Larry Sims planned several stops for Cash when he was in Dyess, including a visit to city hall to look at his father's graduation composite. Sims said Cash read old Dyess Colony newspapers and spoke with his father's high school friends.

Cash used a long picksack to try picking cotton on a farm near Joiner. He said he was pretty slow at picking cotton and it "sure got hot fast."

"I plan to take my cotton home with me and make a pillow out of it, seeds and all," Cash said. "I even pulled up some cotton stalks to take with me."

****

Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young on "Johnny Cash Show" DVD

On September 18, CMV/Columbia/Legacy will release The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show, a 2xDVD compiling 66 live performances from the 58 episodes of Johnny Cash's 1969-1971 "The Johnny Cash Show".

Kris Kristofferson hosts the DVD, which features performances from Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Louis Armstrong, Loretta Lynn, Neil Diamond, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Derek and the Dominoes, Roy Orbison, the Carter Family (inluding June Carter Cash), and Johnny Cash himself, among many others.

The set also features new interviews with John Carter Cash, Tennessee Three bassist Marshall Grant, Hank Williams, Jr., musical arranger Bill Walker, and hairstylist Penny Lane.

There will also be a single-disc CD version of the compilation available on the same day as the DVD.

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show (DVD):

01 Johnny Cash: "Ring of Fire"
02 Bob Dylan: "I Threw It All Away"
03 Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan: "Girl From the North Country"
04 Kris Kristofferson: "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)"
05 Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash: "Blue Yodel #9"
06 Stevie Wonder: "Heaven Help Us All"
07 Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Bad Moon Rising"
08 Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Cash: "I Will Never Marry"
09 George Jones: Medley: "White Lightning" (with Johnny Cash) / "She Thinks I Still Care" / "The Love Bug" / "The Race Is On"
10 Johnny Cash: "Hey Porter"
11 Waylon Jennings: "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line"
12 Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash: "The Singing Star's Queen"
13 Waylon Jennings: "Brown Eyed Handsome Man"
14 Tammy Wynette: "Stand by Your Man"
15 Marty Robbins: Medley: "Big Iron" / "Running Gun" / "El Paso"
16 Johnny Cash: "Ride This Train"
17 Johnny Cash: "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow"
18 Johnny Cash: "Man in Black"
19 James Taylor: "Sweet Baby James"
20 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: "Cripple Creek"
21 Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash: "Worried Man Blues"
22 Johnny Cash: "Sunday Morning Coming Down"
23 Johnny Cash: "Old Time Religion"
24 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins, and the Tennessee Three: "Daddy Sang Bass"
25 Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters: "Wildwood Flower"
26 Neil Young: "The Needle and the Damage Done"
27 Johnny Cash: "Tennessee Flat Top Box"
28 Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash: "Long Black Veil"
29 Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three with Carl Perkins: "Big River"
30 Johnny Cash: "I Walk the Line"
31 June Carter Cash: "A Good Man"
32 Derek and the Dominoes: "It's Too Late"
33 Derek and the Dominoes With Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins: "Matchbox"
34 Charley Pride: "Able Bodied Man"
35 Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys: "Blue Moon of Kentucky"
36 Loretta Lynn: "I Know How"
37 Jerry Lee Lewis: "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
38 Johnny Cash: "Ride This Train (America the Beautiful, This Land Is Your Land)"
39 The Everly Brothers With Ike Everly and Tommy Cash: "Silver Haired Daddy of Mine"
40 Ray Charles: "Ring of Fire"
41 Johnny Cash: "A Boy Named Sue"
42 Conway Twitty: "Hello Darlin'"
43 Mother Maybelle Carter: "Black Mountain Rag"
44 Tony Joe White and Johnny Cash: "Pork Salad Annie"
45 Glenn Campbell: "Wichita Lineman"
46 Neil Diamond: "Cracklin' Rosie"
47 Ray Price: "For the Good Times"
48 Roy Orbison: "Crying"
49 Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash: "Oh, Pretty Woman"
50 Johnny Cash: "Wanted Man"
51 Chet Atkins and Johnny Cash: "Recuerdo De La Alhambra"
52 Chet Atkins: Medley: "Country Gentleman" / "Mister Sandman" / "Wildwood Flower" / "Freight Train"
53 June Carter Cash With Homer and Jethro: "Baby It's Cold Outside"
54 Merle Haggard: "No Hard Time Blues"
55 Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash: "Sing Me Back Home"
56 Carl Perkins: "Blue Suede Shoes"
57 Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins: "The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago"
58 Roy Clark: Medley: "In the Summertime" / "12th Street Rag"
59 The Statler Brothers: "Flowers on the Wall"
60 Johnny Cash: "Working Man Blues"
61 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: "Jackson"
62 Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: "Turn Around"
63 Johnny Cash: "I Love You Because"
64 Hank Williams Jr.: Medley: "You Win Again" / "Cold Cold Heart" / "I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love With You" / "Half As Much"
65 Johnny Cash: "A Wonderful Time up There"
66 Johnny Cash: "Folsom Prison Blues"

****

August 6, 2007

****

New Update

“FIDDLER’S CURSE” SOLVES THE MYSTERY BEHIND FLORIDA’S WORLD-FAMOUS TRAIN TUNE

New book reveals the extraordinary story behind one of the 20^th century’s most popular songs

 Order Yours Now

ORLANDO, FLA., July 2, 2007 -- One of the most bizarre stories in all of popular music is the story behind Orange Blossom Special, arguably the century’s best-known fiddle tune as well as one of the most-performed songs of the 20th century and a signature hit for the late Johnny Cash.

In a newly released book, Florida-based author Randy Noles investigates the lives of the two men credited with authoring the song, which salutes a legendary streamlined passenger train.

The book, Fiddler’s Curse: The Untold Story of Ervin T. Rouse, Chubby Wise, Johnny Cash and the Orange Blossom Special (Centerstream Publishing, $14.95), reveals the luckless Rouse to be the sole author.

Rouse, who endured tragedy, alcoholism and mental illness, spent his final years fiddling for tips in isolated taverns at the edge of the Everglades. Wise, who achieved fame as the seminal fiddler of the bluegrass era and the acclaimed author of the song, also struggled to overcome personal demons and heal the scars of childhood abuse and abandonment. Cash, the tortured superstar who made the Special a mainstream hit, quietly championed Rouse and earned the enmity of Wise following a perceived onstage slight.

“The book settles a longstanding authorship controversy over the song,” said Noles. “More importantly though, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of these brilliant but deeply flawed men and paints a vivid portrait of life as an itinerate musician in the 1930s and 1940s.”

Noles wrote Orange Blossom Boys, a critically acclaimed 2002 Centerstream Publishing release, regarding the song. However, after he dug deeper into the story and uncovered new information about Rouse, Wise and Cash’s connection to both men and to the song, he revised and updated Orange Blossom Boys for re-release as Fiddler’s Curse.

“In addition to telling a terrific yarn, this book is an important contribution to the literature of traditional American music,” says Ron Middlebrook, president of Centerstream Publishing. “Plus it validates the life of Ervin Rouse, who might otherwise have been forgotten. We’re very proud to be associated with this project.”

What the critics say:

“A delightful, engaging, well-written, thoroughly researched journey down the Seaboard Line with a great song and its creators…;a great book…would that we had many more like it in our field.”

-Ronnie Pugh, Historian and Author: Ernest Tubb: The Texas Troubador

“A mix of history and detective work steeped in Florida lore."

-The Orlando Sentinel

“A lively book…offers a fascinating glimpse into the country music scene during the Great Depression and the early days of bluegrass.

--Fiddler Magazine

“Written with extreme attention to detail and a knack for compelling storytelling…with characters almost to fantastic to be real.”

-Jacksonville Magazine

For interviews, please contact:

Randy Noles

407-895-7505

 

For review copies please contact:

Ron Middlebrook

Centerstream Publishing

centerstrm@aol.com

****

By Skip Descant
Dispatch Starkville Bureau
sdescant@cdispatch.com

July 30, 2007

STARKVILLE - With interest coming from the Johnny Cash family and from fans from around the world, the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival in Starkville is turning into no ordinary weekend.

“John Carter Cash sent me an e-mail,” said festival organizer Robbie Ward. “He said, ‘I love this idea, and I'd love to be there if possible.'”

“Do you know who that is?” asked Ward, more than a little excited. You can be sure he knows.

John Carter Cash, 37, of Henderson, Tenn., is the only child of Johnny and June Cash. He was also one of the lead producers of the movie, “Walk the Line,” and is a musician, singer and actor. John Cash is also the author of his mother's biography “Anchored in Love.”

So yeah, when John Carter calls, it's getting big.

“The Johnny Cash family has officially endorsed this festival, and that's huge because the Johnny Cash family has never endorsed any festival,” said Ward, speaking Monday to the Starkville Rotary Club.

Also, just in, Marshall Grant, of Hernando and the bass player and former Cash tour manager has agreed to speak about his book “I Was There When it Happened: My Life With Johnny Cash,” at the festival during a panel discussion.

“I think it's a great fun project that I know Johnny would get a kick out of,” said Bill Miller, host of the online Johnny Cash radio show, at johnnycash.com/radio, which reaches some 250,000 listeners.

“We're happy to plug anything that supports Johnny's legacy in a positive way, and I think this festival does that,” added Miller.

“He told me, ‘Robbie, there's nothing like this anywhere in the world,' said Ward recalling a recent conversation he'd had with Miller.

Which is what Ward wanted to hear, and part of why he's so excited about getting the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival off the ground.

The event is set to take place Nov. 2-4, and is designed to offer something for everyone. So whether it's music, preaching, book discussions or films, this all-ages - and indeed all-everyone free festival - is cast in what has evolved as Cash's own all-inclusive image.

“He was playing for people who could be his grandchildren,” said Ward, recalling some of the final performances Cash gave before his death in September 2003.

Fundraising

The Cash festival T-shirts have been selling at a pace almost faster than they can be produced. More than 200 have already been bought by fans all across the country through the festival's Web site pardonjohnnycash.com. Ward hopes the T-shirt sales will go a long way toward helping to fund the festival, which will undoubtedly need support from fans and local business and industry.

And for encouragement, even attracting 10,000 people, the festival could yield a local economic impact of $3 million, Ward told the Rotarians.

Background

By now, it's hardly news that Cash was last in Starkville in May 1965 and performed a show at Mississippi State University, attended a few after-parties - one of them being at the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity - and was later picked up by Starkville police for public drunkenness. Details are sketchy. Some say he was “pickin' flowers” from a garden around Jackson Street and Highway 182. Others say the Man in Black was less than completely attired. But whatever the circumstances, Cash wrote a song about the experience, called “Starkville City Jail,” and not long after turned his life around, moving from the diaspora of drugs and alcohol to the powerful and solid presence his voice and music now personify.

“Johnny Cash is a cultural icon,” said Ward, who believes many can connect with Cash's own road to redemption, acceptance and diversity. “He's as American as apple pie.”

“This will be something that's good for Starkville and something that's good for Johnny Cash fans,” Ward said.

More at http://pardonjohnnycash.com

*****

The Great Lost Performance of Johnny Cash

Only recently unearthed and newly mixed from the original multi-tracks, the nearly hour-long CD features Cash at his most compelling--performing in front of a live audience. Among the 18 songs on Johnny Cash - The Great Lost Performance are renditions of some of his greatest hits, from such early songs as “I Walk The Line,” “Hey Porter” and “Folsom Prison Blues” to the later “Ring Of Fire,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky.”

In addition, a wonderfully upbeat Cash not only duets with wife June Carter Cash on a boisterous “Jackson” and another very early song, “The Wreck Of Old ’97,” but the pair also punctuate the music with wonderful introductions and revealing stories.

The Great Lost Performance Track Listing:
1 Ring Of Fire
2 Life's Railway To Heaven
3 A Wonderful Time Up There
4 Folsom Prison Blues
5 Sunday Morning Coming Down
6 What Is Man
7 Forty Shades Of Green
8 Come Along And Ride This Train
9 Five Feet High And Rising
10 Pickin' Time
11 A Beautiful Day
12 Hey Porter
13 Ragged Old Flag
14 Tennessee Flat Top Box
15 Ghost Riders In The Sky
16 Jackson
17 The Wreck Of Old '97
18 I Walk The Line

****

Special to The Dispatch


STARKVILLE - Bill Miller of www.johnnycash.com will air an interview with Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival's executive director Wednesday, July 25.

After gaining momentum in the Starkville community, Johnny Cash fans throughout the world will have an opportunity to learn about the city of Starkville issuing a symbolic pardon to the Man in Black, and a festival to include a musical lineup of artists associated with Cash.

Owner and founder of www.johnnycash.com, Miller was a personal friend of Cash, said the thought of Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival delighted him and gives Cash fans a formal event to pay tribute to legendary musical icon who died in 2003.

“There's nothing like this anywhere in the world,” Miller said.

Johnnycash.com debuted its radio outlet June 13, which includes a weekly streaming broadcast featuring interviews with Cash family members, associates, friends and fans. Along with the one hour broadcast, the radio outlet offers feature discussions of Johnny Cash's nearly five-decade long career, music, sound bites from the Man in Black, interactive contests and more.

“This is big. It opens us up to a worldwide audience,” said Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival Executive Director Robbie Ward Wednesday morning, speaking about the impact of going before some 250,000 listeners with the news of a Johnny Cash festival in Starkville.

Cash sang about his run-in with the Starkville authorities on his album, “At San Quentin (The Complete Live Concert),” recorded in 1968. After performing at Mississippi State University in 1965, Starkville police arrested Cash for public drunk and took him to the Oktibbeha County Jail.

Cash's version of the story said police arrested him for “pickin' flowers.” A few years after the altercation, Cash returned to Starkville and gave local authorities free tickets to his performance to show “no hard feelings.”

Ward, a longtime follower of Cash and a near expert on his life and music, said it's time for the city of Starkville to “pardon Johnny Cash.” More than 42 years later, the city's set to hold the first Johnny Cash Flower Pickin Festival, highlighting memories of Cash - a lifelong symbol of redemption. After years of struggling with alcohol and substance abuse and other personal demons, Cash emerged as a symbol for people throughout the world who made mistakes and lived to learn from them.

“Johnny Cash's story is universal,” Ward said. “We can all see a little Johnny Cash in ourselves.”

Along with the pardon and music, the festival will include:

-A viewing of the 2005 film, “Walk the Line,” which detailed parts of Cash's turbulent life.

- A community-wide social and charity auction at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house at Mississippi State University.

- Discussions by authors of books about Johnny Cash.

- A community-wide church service for the community and Cash fans to ask for forgiveness.

Ward said proceeds from selling “Pardon Johnny Cash” T-shirts at www.pardonjohnnycash.com will fund all costs associated with the festival.

“Cash fans buying T-shirts allows them to have ownership in the festival and know they helped make it possible,” Ward said.

All events associated with the festival will be free. However, Ward said the festival will “adopt” two local causes - Starkville/Oktibbeha Boys and Girls Club and the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum - and encourage support for them. Although the downtown Starkville music festival will have no required admission, the two worthy groups will share all proceeds from recommended donation of $10 per person at the festival.

“Johnny Cash believed in love, compassion and charity, and so will the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival,” Ward said.

For more information, contact Robbie Ward at pardonjohnnycash@gmail.com or (662) 418-4290.

More at http://pardonjohnnycash.com

****

Johnny Cash's Spiritual Journey is Revealed in a New Music Documentary from Gaither Television Productions

July 22, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-(Business Wire)-July 16, 2007 - Rock and country music icon Johnny Cash waged a life-long struggle for salvation, and that spiritual odyssey is the subject of a new music documentary, The Gospel Music of Johnny Cash: A Story of Faith and Redemption, slated for a September release. The 90-minute documentary is produced by Gaither Television Productions and directed by award-winning director Michael Merriman, the team responsible for such acclaimed documentaries as The Gospel Music of Elvis Presley, Billy Graham: God's Ambassador and Elvis Alive: The 25th Anniversary Concert. The video is scripted by CMT editorial director and former Rolling Stone editor, Chet Flippo.

Filmed in cooperation with the estate of the late Rock 'n' Roll and Country Music Hall of Famer, The Gospel Music of Johnny Cash features footage of vintage Cash performances from numerous Billy Graham Crusades as well as from Cash's popular ABC television show. Personal interviews with family, friends and musical associates are punctuated with rarely-seen photos from family albums and the personal archives of close friend, former son-in-law and former band member, Marty Stuart.

"Johnny Cash is one of the most towering and compelling personalities in modern music, but what is most touching is his honesty and never-ending quest for personal salvation," said Merriman. "We feel an enormous responsibility to do justice to his remarkable legacy, and our ultimate goal is to honestly portray a man of the people who struggled with his faith every day of his life and found redemption through the love of Jesus Christ."

The music documentary will be available on DVD through EMI Worldwide on September 25th, and an edited version will be available for television. It will air on GAC, RFD, Vision TV (Canada) and numerous other networks.

*****

A ‘lost’ Johnny Cash concert featuring many rare performances is to be released later this month.

July 22, 2007

The show at Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey in July 1990 saw the legendary late singer play a number of rarely performed songs including the only known recordings of  ‘Wonderful Time Up There’, ‘A Beautiful Life’ and ‘Life's Railway To Heaven’.

The concert, only recently uneathered in record company vaults also features duets with Cash and his late wife June Carter Cash.

Johnny Cash - The Great Lost Performance is released on 24 July.

****

The Sunny Side and More: An Interview With John Carter Cash

[16 July 2007]

John Carter Cash talks to PopMatters about his mother's life and the process of creating the new June Carter Cash tribute album and biography.

by Jason MacNeil

There are certain musical families that one instantly thinks of when a simple surname is tossed out, like Wilson, Wainwright, or Williams. That isn’t to say that they’re all such families start with a “W”, but the name evokes images or thoughts. Carter and Cash are two other families that have been a cornerstone of American music the last half-century and before. So when you’re John Carter Cash, there’s a heritage there that is almost criminally rich and stellar.

Yet above all the accolades, tributes, and love that was (and still is) bestowed upon the late Johnny Cash and the late June Carter Cash, there’s one word that the families have cherished more than any other: truth. Rosanne Cash often mentioned the word in an interview as the topic touched upon the tear-inducing, lump-in-your-throat video her late father made for “Hurt”. And it’s that truth that John Carter Cash has adhered to with two releases, a tribute album entitled Anchored in Love and a biography of the same name, both based on June Carter Cash.

“When I decided to make the record and book, I knew it was going to be hard,” John Carter Cash says from his home. “I knew that I would have to tell the truth, which was sort of heavy. But at the same time I knew it was something that I wanted to do. I also believed firmly that I could make the point of it one of retribution and showing family values and to show some of those characteristics of my mother at the very core.”

Although both record and book are being released in June, John says that the idea for the album came first. The book project came after Thomas Nelson, the publishers of the biography The Man Called Cash, approached the Cash estate about a book on June.

“They didn’t have an author picked out; they were talking to some different people,” John says. “In the process they asked me if I would write a forward, so I went ahead and wrote the forward for the book. When they read the forward, they said ‘Why don’t you just write the book?’ I knew it would be hard, but I’m glad I did it in the end.”

June Carter Cash, who passed away in 2003 five months prior to Johnny, was part of the Carter Family before meeting up with “The Man in Black”. And while a song such as “Ring of Fire” is always associated with Johnny, few might realize it was June Carter Cash who wrote it.

“I think their contribution together was beautiful and it stood alone,” John says. “I think she stood behind him, endorsed him and strengthened him throughout his career. I think that her force as a creative person and a songwriter, a performer, a musician, has an enduring beauty and uniqueness onto itself apart from my father.”

 

John Carter Cash

As for the album, Anchored in Love features Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Ralph Stanley, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, and Sheryl Crow to name a few. Cash says that making the album was nothing but a joy to create, and he sensed the presence of his mother throughout the recordings.

“She’s going to be involved in one way or another—she’s right there with me,” he says with a laugh. “The fact was I see her light shining in the eyes of some of the folks that were on the project. They had a close, dear relationship with my mother.

“My family was there, my sister Carlene and my sister Rosanne and then there were folks that were influenced by her indirectly, people like Grey De Lisle. The songs were straight out of the heart and the songs felt right. They are songs where only certain people could do them. But these artists went above and beyond.”

As for memorable moments, Cash says that having Loretta Lynn in the studio was like having his mother around again.

“She is cut from the same mold as my mother,” he says. “They are of the same ilk, they really are. They’re so much alike in their character and dedication to their art, their visions.”

Meanwhile, Ralph Stanley’s rendition of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” was recorded at the old Carter home in Maces Springs, Virginia, the same home June Carter Cash recorded her final album Wildwood Flower.

“It was an unforgettable experience—the whole band in the living room, which we had done before,” he says. “It was just right to see someone of such stature and dignity performing in the place where my mother did years before as well as her mother (Maybelle).”

And it appears that John Carter Cash’s five-year-old daughter Anna Maybelle has her own favorite off the album.

“She has adopted ‘Keep on the Sunny Side’ as her anthem in her life,” Cash says. “I take her to school every morning so I have listened to Brad Paisley’s version everyday of my life for the past year. I haven’t really gotten tired of it yet so I guess it’s great. The song is about my mother and father’s love, a song that’s very dear and important.”

Yet as joyful as the album’s process was, some of the previously unknown truths in the book show a different side of June Carter Cash, including an addiction to pain medication in her final years.

“Obviously the end was tough to write about her death,” Cash says before pausing briefly. “That was really hard to go back through. But at the same time I think there’s something about not being afraid of the truth, it does heal. It’s not something I was afraid of, those memories. I think it was a blessing, that fact that I had to go through those memories of pain and what they brought up.”

The book is basically split in half, the early part dedicated to June’s early years and the second half detailing different sides and aspects of June that her son writes about different memories, be they a simple evening or a period of days.

“I didn’t recount her life step-by-step,” he says. “I would spend a whole chapter on one night or a week-long period because I felt that explained clearly some of what my mother had gone through in life and who she was, those moments of her life.”

The book and album will mark the end of any additional material related to June Carter Cash. John Carter Cash says there’s plenty of Johnny Cash material coming out, including American VI which is done and set to be released in October. He also says he’s heard rumors of a possible Walk the Line film sequel around June and Johnny’s later years, but nothing is confirmed.

So what would June Carter Cash think of all these releases on her life and music?

“I think she would have been overjoyed,” John Carter Cash says. “I think everything that has happened since she passed on, she’s aware of it. That Reese Witherspoon won an Academy Award portraying her, I’m sure she’s somewhere dancing and laughing right now.”

 

 

****

By Skip Descant
sdescant@cdispatch.com
Thursday, July 12, 2007 11:19 AM CDT

STARKVILLE - If the fast-selling promotional T-shirts, the more than 600 members in the Pardon Johnny Cash Facebook group or even the buzz on the street are any indications, the upcoming Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival in Starkville is off and running and gaining speed from practically every corner of the community.

“This is what a community event should be,” said Robbie Ward, chair of the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival Committee, a group representing fraternity members, preachers, businesses, city officials, band promoters and more, who have teamed up to stage a weekend event centered around music, panel discussions, a community movie, a city-wide worship service and other events, all celebrating the life and work of Johnny Cash.

“This is very representative of what Johnny Cash is about,” said Ward, expressing the multidimensional characteristic of Cash's following and influence which seems poised in a world above the usual divisions of generation, class or race, giving an entire community something it can gather around.

“You see a lot of excited people wanting to take part in this,” added Ward Wednesday night after the first meeting of the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival Committee.

“Everyone can somehow identify with Johnny Cash,” continued Ward, as he thought about the many ways or reasons so many people might connect to Cash, which call to mind Cash's fall from grace and redemption, which in turn brought him truer to his place as an artist.

What Ward is basing the Flower Pickin' Festival on is an incident back in 1965 when Cash was arrested in Starkville for public drunkenness after an evening at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house. He was at Mississippi State University earlier for a performance. When Cash was arrested, he was purported as saying, “I was only pickin' flowers.” The man in black spent the night in the Starkville City Jail, prompting him to go on to write a song about the experience.

Next step

Ward and the committee next plan to go before the Starkville Board of Aldermen at the board's August meeting to request the city's endorsement of the festival and request in-kind services for the Nov. 2-3 festival, to be held downtown, culminating with a headline music act, which organizers expect to name in the next month.

“We realize that 16 weeks is close, but we feel like we have enough time to pull off a first-class production that people will be proud of,” said Ward.

The Pike fraternity - given its own connection to the Cash incident - is a key player in the festival and is pledging full support. A community movie showing “Walk the Line” will be screened at the MSU Amphitheater and the fraternity will host a community welcome party.

Associate Pastor Allison Parvin from First United Methodist Church will deliver a sermon focused on redemption and forgiveness.

Rick Welch, owner of Rick's Cafe, is in charge of booking not just the headline music act, but other groups to play during the festival, coming from country, rock and bluegrass genres.

Also, a panel discussion with writers and musicians is already in the planning phase.

“We're in awe of how big this thing could be,” said Ward.

Promoting Starkville

What Ward and his organizers are hopeful of is to showcase this community and this state.

“This is going to show a lot of people to Starkville and Mississippi,” said Ward over coffee at McAlister's Deli. “This is a great time to bring them here, to see what we're really about.”

What he's hoping thousands of visitors will see is what happens when one community comes together around a single idea.

“This is a community-wide event, and we want everyone on board,” said Ward, speaking into his cellphone to Arma Salazar, Greater Starkville Development Partnership vice president for tourism and retirement services, hoping to gain a speaker spot at the next restaurant and hotel association meeting.

“This festival is definitely going to happen in November,” reflected Ward. “But community support and sponsorship will determine how much it's going to happen.”

Like the Movies on the Green community film series, the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival grew out of a mustard seed of an idea started in the Oktibbeha County Leadership Development Forum, a program organized by the GSDP and MSU Extension Service to grow leaders in Oktibbeha County. Ward, and quite a few people on the Flower Pickin' committee, are graduates of that program, and they're not waiting for someone to tell them to get busy.

“There's a real energy with this thing,” said Ward. “And it's building.”

For more information about the festival, write to pardonjohnnycash@gmail.com. T-shirts are available at City Bagel and Bin 612.

****

DVD Review: Johnny Cash The Man - His World - His Music

This post was written by zzsimonb on 12 July, 2007 (03:53)

****

July 12, 2007

On Saturday, the Casper (Wyo.) Rockies will have Johnny Cash Night. The club's game staff will dress in all black, and any fan doing so will get in for half-price. And all the music will be Cash-related.

***

What was the genesis of "Sunday Morning Coming Down"?

"Sunday Morning Coming Down" is probably the most directly autobiographical thing I'd written. In those days, I was living in a slum tenement that was torn down afterwards, but it was $25 a month in a condemned building, and "Sunday Morning Coming Down" was more or less looking around me and writing about what I was doing. One time, some people broke into that place, and I had to call the police station to answer some questions about it, and the guy said, "Yeah, they really trashed the place when they went in there." But I hadn't noticed that it was any different. There were holes in the wall bigger than I was. It was quite a place, so "Sunday Morning Coming Down" is kind of more or less what I was living in at the time. I guess it was depressing, I don't know, but the chorus was kind of uplifting.

Did that come from a real walk that you made on a Sunday morning?

I'm not sure whether I really walked. What I was really trying to do was to keep the feeling of loss and of sadness. For me at the time, it was the loss of my family and looking at a little kid swinging on a swing and his daddy pushing him. That was the feeling I wanted to get for the whole song. I think Sunday was the choice because the bars were closed in the morning and nobody was at work, so if you were alone, it was the most alone time. Ray Stevens cut it first, and he cut a great version of it. I remember I just wept when I first heard it. He had spent more time in the studio on it than anyone has spent with a song of mine, and he just sang it very soulfully, but they didn't know how to market him that way because that was when he was doing sort of the novelty records like "The Streak" and those funny records that he used to do. They didn't want him to sing something really serious. I felt really bad about it because he really put in a lot of work in it.

It's sort of the continuing saga of "The Pilgrim" narrating your life.

Well, there were a lot of people that the pilgrim stood for or that I felt fit into that category, and most of them were people who were serious about songwriting, but an awful lot of us just looked like we were out of work.

How did Johnny Cash get "Sunday Morning Coming Down"?

John said that I landed in a helicopter and gave it to him. I don't believe that was the one that I gave him that day. I don't think he ever cut that one, but I'm sure that John heard me singing it to him out at his house because ... there were three or four of us that could call up John when we really felt needy, and we could show him what we were doing and he would raise our spirits. He never let us down, and every time that I can remember, I wouldn't overdo it to bother him or invade his privacy, but it was one of the great experiences for us at the time because we weren't getting any songs recorded, but just to have him listen and give us encouragement was the great thing. I went out there and saw the ruins [of the former Cash house], and it just seemed like the end of a novel or something.

How did you first meet Johnny Cash?

First time I ever met him face to face was backstage at the Ryman. I was here on leave from the Army, and [songwriter] Marijohn Wilkin was showing me around and took me backstage and introduced me to the policeman back there. From then on, he always let me in back. John was pacing around backstage, and I said I've got to meet him, and she went up and introduced me to him. He shook my hand and it just electrified me, and I'm sure that's when I decided that I was going to come back here and try to be another songwriter. After that, the next time I saw him was after Cowboy Jack Clement had showed him a letter I got from home where my mother had basically disowned me and said don't come and visit my relatives, you're an embarrassment to us, you know. And this tickled John to death, I guess, because when I was working over at Columbia as a studio setup guy, he came up to me and said, "It's always nice to get a letter from home, isn't it?" I gave him every song I ever wrote after that.

When he was going to do "Sunday Morning" on his TV show, the network tried to make him take the word "stoned" out of it. You were at the Ryman Auditorium when that happened.

Right. They were filming the Johnny Cash show at the Ryman, and he was going to sing it. The people from the network didn't want him to say, "Lord, I'm wishing I was stoned," and there was a bunch of them standing around and they suggested "wishing, Lord, that I was home." And I said that's not the same thing, you know, and John never said a word. He just stood there looking at us, so I didn't know what he was going to do. I would have gone with whatever he wanted to do, but in the show, I was in the balcony up there, and he got to that line and looked up and he said, "wishing, Lord, that I was stoned," and I just loved him for that. He saved the song. It would not have been the same thing.

What do you think his eternal legacy is going to be?

Johnny Cash's legacy, I think if it was one word, it would be integrity. He was the original wild man and grew from that guy that was doing all the crazy things that you read that rock 'n' rollers do to being someone who was like the father of our country, you know. He was a guest at the White House. He was Billy Graham's friend. He was respected and really idolized by Bob Dylan, and that was such an important thing for country music. It gave it legitimacy, but I don't think anyone was like John. I think he was always larger than life. Everyone remembers him being about 8 feet tall. His championing underdogs was something that a lot of us ought to emulate. He left a big hole. I don't think there will ever be someone who's got quite the character and the presence of John. His face was on the cover of Time magazine when he died, and I can't think of any other entertainer that they'd be doing that with. I sure hated to see his house burn down, but he might have done it himself. He didn't want anyone else living in it, you know.

****

Marty Stuart has been in the music business for 35 years and if 2007 is an indication, he doesn't have any plans to slow down.

Stuart, who will kick off the Craven Country Jamboree on Thursday with Marty's Party, has brought a number of projects to fruition last month:

Compadres: An Anthology of Duets was released on Stuart's Superlatone Record label. The disc features 14 tracks of Stuart duets recorded at various points of his career.

Country Music: The Masters is a 355-page book of photos taken by Stuart, tracing his life in country music. Included in the book is the last photo taken of Johnny Cash, along with pictures of legends like George Jones, Dolly Parton and Earl Scruggs.

q Sparkle & Twang: Marty Stuart's American Musical Odyssey is a museum exhibit covering 10,000 square feet at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. There are thousands of items in the exhibit, all of which were collected by Stuart. Included in the gallery is Hank Williams' handwritten lyrics for Your Cheatin' Heart, one of Johnny Cash's black suits, Bob Wills' cowboy boots and Jimmy Rodgers' briefcase.

The first question that springs to mind is: How did Stuart do it all?

"I don't know, it just happens," said Stuart in a recent telephone interview. "It's kind of like building a house. You just build and build and one day you look up and you're done. It's just kind of an ongoing process.

"I get up and go to work every day. I have a lot of projects and some days some projects get more attention than the others but somehow they all tend to get finished."

Stuart, who will turn 49 on Sept. 30, learned to play the guitar and mandolin while growing up in Philadelphia, Miss. In 1972, at the age of 13, Stuart joined Lester Flatts and the Nashville Grass. He stayed with the bluegrass legend until Flatts retired in 1978. Stuart did session work until joining Cash's band in 1980. In addition to marrying Cash's daughter Cindy in 1983 -- they subsequently divorced in 1988 -- Stuart benefitted immensely from his association with the Man in Black.

Perhaps the most important piece of advice Stuart took from Cash was to be absolutely fearless creatively and not worry about chart numbers. Cash told Stuart it was more important to follow what fills your heart, have fun doing it and be serious about it and the music will find an audience.

"It wasn't just words," said Stuart.

"The Johnny Cash movement that occurred just before he passed away -- it just took him into the stratosphere. But what people forget about is a 25-year stretch where nobody cared, except for a core group of fans. I was there for a lot of that.

"We made record after record and played show after show with half-full houses but he never, ever compromised. Even when his ideas were awful, it's what he believed in. He was damned and determined to follow them through. Whether it sold three copies or three tickets, it was what was in his heart to do. That costs you either way at times.

"And that's how I've lived my life since 1999 and sometimes it's worked out well and sometimes it's bombed at the box office. At the end of my life, I know from 1999 forward I'm going to look back and know that I'm proud of that body of work. That's what my heart told me to do. Even the mistakes are OK when you're living under those terms."

Stuart, as busy as he is with his various projects, hasn't forgotten about his own music. With four Grammy Awards, five gold albums and six Top-10 hits, Stuart still enjoys hitting the road with his band, The Fabulous Superlatives. They play around 75 shows per year and Stuart warns they shouldn't be missed when they come to Craven.

"This is a staggering band," said Stuart. "We can back it up. It's the best band in this town, hands down. I'm not a rocket