Cash’d Out - The Next Best Thing To Johnny Cash!

Photo: Paz Photography

There are many bands and artists out there that perform cover songs of Johnny Cash. Though alot of those band do a decent job with their versions, the music of Johnny Cash will never be duplicated with the same feel and passion that he, Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant put into their songs back in the mid 1950’s. That being said, there is only one band that has the honor of being officially backed and endorsed by JohnnyCash.Com - The Official Johnny Cash Website, and the band is San Diego, CA based “Cash’d Out”.

I first heard about these guys a few years ago when they were still playing the local San Diego scene and my girlfriend, who is from San Diego County, asked me if I ever heard of them because she knows how much of Cash fan I am. Once I heard their music, I was hooked. I would frequently make the 2 Hour drive from Los Angeles to San Diego just to go catch their shows. It was always well worth it (Thankfully though, they are now frequently playing in my local area so I don’t have to make that far drive). I consider myself a pretty “die hard” Johnny Cash fan and these guys passed my test, so to speak, with flying colors. They capture the legendary “Boom Chicka Boom” sound very nicely and lead vocalist, Doug Benson’s voice has a pretty good resemblance to that of Johnny’s. I highly recommend to anybody that has a chance to go see them perform live………DO IT! Kevin, Sean, and Doug are all stand up guys and mingle with their audience and fans.

Recently, lead guitarist Kevin Manuel, who also became a pretty good buddy of mine over the past couple of years, took some time to answer some questions and gives some nice info on Cash’d Out. Enjoy!

Jay, The Opening Set.Com: Introduce yourself and band members and what instrument you each play?

Kevin Manuel, Cash’d Out:

Douglas Benson – lead vocals and acoustic guitar
Juli Crockett (yes she’s related to Davy!) – lead vocal gal and acoustic guitar
Sean Glithero – Upright bass
George Bernardo – drum kit
And I am Kevin Manuel – lead guitar and harmonica

Jay: How did you form your band?

KM: Well, ol’ Dougie put an ad in the local rag and I read it (kinda funny because I was just looking for another guitar – I need more guitars like I need a root canal!!) . It read something like “Johnny Cash cover band looking for lead guitar player, must play like Luther Perkins”. Well you know me, I’m a huge fan of Luther’s and that piqued my interest. I went and “tried out” and found out that the “band” was just Doug and I so far (I should have sued him for false advertising!). I got a hold of Sean and got him on board playing the bass, and the rest is history.

Jay: False advertising? Ha ha. Classic. So how do you feel about being the only band endorsed by the Johnny Cash official website and the fact that Johnny’s official website sells some of your band merchandise?

KM: We have been very fortunate to have the relationship with Bill Miller and JohnnyCash.com. It’s not just great publicity, but Bill is a good friend of ours. He was a really close friend of Johnny’s and saw him perform countless times so it’s really an honor having people like that in our corner. We’ve met a lot of the Cash inner circle through him as well. We’ve learned a lot about Johnny, his life, his band, and his show from Bill and the folks we’ve met.

Jay: Besides Johnny Cash, What or who are your musical inspirations?

KM: I grew up on old Country and Western music and branched off to almost everything under the sun. I’ve been on a big Louvin Brothers kick for a few years now. The rest of the fellers like all kinds of music too, Sean will be listening to Reggae one day, bluegrass the next and Bob Will the next.

Jay: Alot of the Johnny Cash early stuff was based around the key of F or A# and many songs sounded musically similar to each other, yet so different. The many different stories Johnny could tell through his lyrics made each song very unique and his storytelling ability is second to none in my opinion. Is there any song in particular that really grabs you for one reason or another, or any song you just love playing more than the others?

KM: Johnny was the greatest story teller, and set to the backing of the Tennessee 2 there was nothing like it. A lot of em are almost identical musically, but you know what song it is right off the bat with Luther’s intro and the story Johnny tells.
One of our favorite songs to play is “So Doggone Lonesome”. It is the stereotypical Johnny Cash tune, 1-4-5, but like you said, the story it tells and the music (the minor third in the intro) give it a really unique feel, dark and brooding kinda. Sean is a big fan of “Give My Love To Rose”, and I love “I Still Miss someone”.

Jay: ( My personal favorite from their covers has to be “South Wind”. Awesome rendition of that song. Those that are reading this and go see them live, make sure you request it and you’ll see what I am talking about. Great guitar picking by Kevin on that one. )
What audience do you try to attract with your versions of Johnny’s music?

KM: We don’t really try to attract any one particular type of audience. You’ve been to our shows and have seen that there are Grandmas and Grandpas all the way down to kids that are barely old enough to be in the bar! There’s bikers, cowboys, lawyers and teachers. The great thing about Johnny’s music is that it appealed to everyone across socio-economic barriers as well as race, gender and age.

Jay: I know you guys recently within the last year or so, have really increased your touring and travel across many states in the U.S. How have you adapted to that as opposed to your beginnings in the local bar/club scene?

KM: It’s really just been a matter of time management and business decisions. We try not to burn any one out by playing in any one market too much, all while trying to make sure that we are not neglecting any city either. We’ve been playing larger venues in Southern California and that means we can’t play as often as we once did when we were playing small bars and clubs every weekend.

Jay: What are some bands that you have performed or toured with?

KM: Lately we’ve been doing a lot of shows with a couple of great San Diego bands, Pushin’ Rope and The Hard Fall Hearts. We’ve played with the Derailers, Big Sandy, Sonny Burgess, Wanda Jackson, to name a few. We did a gig with Chubby Checker in Milwaukee in 2008, that was a fun one, ol’ Chubby still got it!

Jay: Do you prefer playing large venues or do you like the club/bar scene?

KM: Kinda depends on the night and the venue, but I think our best shows come from mid-size venues. 400-600 capacity joints. We can fill em up and they’re not so big that everyone feels lost. It’s always a good vibe in those places.

Jay: What, if anything, bothers you about the music industry today?

KM: How long you got Roother? Haha, no really, how long you got!

Jay: (Ha ha. I guess we’ll never know. Also, the name “Roother” is a mix that was derived from my love for Luther Perkin’s guitar work and an “A-B” thing between my girlfriend and I.)

If you had a chance, would you sign a record deal with a big commercial record label? Why or why not?

KM: I’m not so sure we would. If the right one came along, sure. The music industry has really changed with the digital revolution, so record deals are really not always in the artists’ best interest. It might be nice to hang on the wall but you can self produce an album and sell a few thousand copies and still make as much as if you had a record deal after you pay back all the front money for recording etc and pay the label a big percentage of the sales.

Jay: Other than music, what hobbies do you and your band mates enjoy?

KM: Music is our passion, so it’s an occupation and a hobby all at the same time. Sean has a family at home so it’s important for him to be home and spend time with them. I’d rather be out checking out other bands if I have a night off! Doug is the same way.

Jay: What are the band’s future plans? Can your fans expect a CD anytime soon?

KM: We’ve actually been recording some songs so keep an eye out! We’ll keep everyone updated on that. Other than that, we’ll just be out on the road finding new places to play across the country.

Jay: Where can our readers find out about your upcoming shows or news?

KM: www.myspace.com/cashdout is our myspace page and www.cashdout.com is our web page. Everything you need to know is on both of em. You can sign up for our newsletter form both sites too so you can stay on top of everything!

Jay: Any final words for readers of The Opening Set?

KM: Just get out and support those bands that you love listening to so they can keep playing, tip yer bartenders and have a good time! Live music is a cure for most of what ails you! Oh, and we’ll see you out there in your town sooner than later!

Much thanks to Kevin for his time. So now go out there and check them out!