'Johnny Cash' coming to Morinville

When folks listen to singer David James, it’s “almost Johnny Cash” they hear.

James looks like Cash’s twin. He has the Man in Black’s posture, mannerisms, moves and distinctive gravelly, bass-baritone drawl. In addition, his band Big River duplicates the boom-chicka-boom sound of Cash’s Tennessee Three backup band.

But as a tribute artist, James does more than imitate and emulate the legend’s music that was at once rebellious, sombre and humble. He inhabits the American poet’s soul.

Like Cash, James frankly admits to a “rough past” battling addictions. It’s the very addiction experiences that have forged a special link between the two country singers, allowing James to find the heart of Cash’s iconic songs – I Walk The Line, Solitary Man, Folsom Prison Blues and Ring of Fire.

“He was so relatable and so was his music. A lot of people had someone in the family just like him,” said James in a telephone interview from his Nanaimo home.

David James and Big River are four musicians from British Columbia’s West Coast dedicated to producing a faithful Johnny Cash tribute show.

They will perform at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre on Friday, Nov. 29 as part of the kick-off events for Light Up the Night Christmas Festival. Rounding out the foursome is Todd Sacerty (bass), Colin Stevenson (drums) and Duncan Symonds.

David James, 46, known to family and friends as Dave Pittet, spent a large part of his life playing rock rhythm guitar in bar bands. But he always had a special affinity to country.

He just never thought David James and Big River would be considered one of Canada’s best Johnny Cash tribute bands.

“I was honestly just hanging out with a lady friend and I picked up a guitar and started singing. She said I sounded more like Johnny Cash than he did. I was so taken aback and it floored me. In those days I didn’t know a lot about him.”

The first year of his act, he read up on Cash, referenced the moves and patterned a great deal after Joaquin Phoenix’s Oscar-nominated performance in Walk the Line.

James was surprised to learn that in the early ’50s Cash served in the United States air force as an intercept operator for Soviet army transmissions and was thought of as a God-fearing man.

“When the other guys went off the base to party, he just hung out with all the other Christian guys.”

But on his return to the United States with constant energy-draining tours, Cash became hooked on alcohol and amphetamines.

“By 1967, he looked like an AIDS victim. And he was taking quantities that would kill you or me.”

James said Cash’s turning point came when a sheriff arrested him. The sheriff, a die-hard Cash fan, nauseated at his idol’s downfall, returned the singer’s possessions and told him to “take the pills and finish the job. Johnny realized how disappointed his fans were in him and that was the start of his cleaning up.”

No matter how far gone Cash was, it was the songs with themes of sorrow, moral distress and redemption that touched audiences.

“People are still such big fans of Johnny they keep looking for a replacement. I’m not claiming I’m the best, but there are still stories to be told, things to be said. Sometimes I feel beat up, but when the lights come on, it all goes away and he’s there.”