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Tribute concert honours The Man In Black

A British Columbia entertainer will don black duds this weekend to bring to life one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

A British Columbia entertainer will don black duds this weekend to bring to life one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

David James and Big River is paying tribute to Grammy Award-winning, multi-genre music icon Johnny Cash with a concert at the Black Diamond Hotel June 9 at 7:30 p.m.

“We’re going to take you on a walk down memory lane,” said James. “We’re going to make you laugh, we’re going to make you cry, we are going to make you remember where you were when you saw Johnny.”

The Nanaimo musician and his trio have been touring western Canada for almost a decade, performing hits of one of the bestselling musicians of all time from the start of his career to the end, such as I Walk the Line and Ring of Fire. The band is bass player Todd Sacerty, drummer Phil Hagen and lead guitarist Alan Medcalf.

“We go with the hits and I read the crowd,” he said. “Sometimes I will do a song that we don’t do every night because I think the crowd wants to hear it or I get some inspiration. Some is scripted and some is from the hip because that’s how Johnny did it.”

Typical of Cash’s performance style, James will talk to fans between songs.

“Johnny talked to his crowds and so do I,” he said. “I’ll be imitating him but I speak of him in kind of a third person thing. I love entertaining people and making people feel a part of something. Johnny himself said, ‘You’ve got to feel it in your gut and then the audience will feel it in their gut.’”

To gain an understanding of The Man in Black, James has read up on the music icon, including biographies Cash wrote about himself.

“I tell stories about how some of the songs may have come about, some of the situations he got himself in,” he said. “Some people are wise to some of the stuff and some stories might be a treat.”

James interacts with the audience whether it’s getting everyone to sing along to certain songs or walking through the crowd.

“We have fun with the crowd,” he said. “It’s an experience where you are not just seeing the show, you are part of the show. Who doesn’t want to feel special? Who doesn’t want to go to a performance of an icon and feel like they actually saw them or bring them back to their younger days?”

Taking on the role of Cash was something that happened unexpectedly for James, who played rhythm guitar in rock bands for years.

One day James’ girlfriend brought home the 2005 biographical film Walk the Line starring Joaquin Phoenix and James began singing along to some of the songs.

“She stopped the movie and said, ‘Do that again,’” he recalled. “I discovered I could imitate him.”

James said he found the movie quite moving, considering some aspects of Cash’s life paralleled his own.

“I was from a small town (Tofield, Alberta) and grew up on a farm,” he said. “We were hard working, so I could relate to that. I could also relate to his struggles with addiction because I struggled myself.”

James admits he wasn’t a huge fan of Cash’s prior to watching the movie, but he did enjoy his music.

“Who the hell doesn’t like Ring of Fire?” he said. “Who doesn’t laugh about A Boy Named Sue?”

While performing with his band, James found himself throwing in the odd Johnny Cash song to an overwhelming response from his audiences.

“In my rock band I would do Cocaine Blues and Ring of Fire and the bar went crazy,” he said. “I started to put little acts together and doing a few pubs here and there around town. Eventually I created a band. I’ve had some people say, ‘You sing cash better than Cash.’”

James took his newfound love of Cash a step further when he was selected to voice the letters the music icon had written to his Canadian manager Saul Holiff in the 2013 documentary My Father and the Man in Black, written and directed by Holiff’s son Jonathan.

With a similar bass-baritone voice, James has no problem fitting into the shoes of the iconic singer.

Tickets to see David James and Big River perform cost $30 and are available at Okotoks Sobeys and the Black Diamond Hotel and Bar.

For more details call 403-612-7046.

To learn more about David James and Big River go to johnnycashtribute.ca

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