MAN IN BLACK
For Shawn Barker and his audiences, Johnny Cash’s legacy refuses to fade,
In a morbid way, there was some degree of twisted fortune that Shawn Barker first began performing his Johnny Cash tribute just a year after the outlaw country icon died.
If sentimental Cash appreciation was at its height then, Barker is stunned at how stubbornly the Man in Black’s legacy refuses to fade 12 years later.
“The fanfare of Johnny Cash has continued to grow and grow,” said Barker down the line from his Las Vegas home. “You see people in Cash T-shirts constantly, movies with his music on the soundtrack. He’s almost become like an Elvis or Marilyn Monroe or Jimi Hendrix, these iconic people you see everywhere in pop culture. “It’s actually gotten pretty big.” Well, so has Barker’s deeply affectionate portrayal of Cash. Man in
Black has been touring extensively for more than a decade and the tribute show winds back through Toronto at the Panasonic Theatre until Dec. 11.
Barker, a 43-year-old former carpenter, let the Star in on how he’s kept that ring of fire burning all these years.
I know the music’s not always that complex, but which Johnny Cash song is the most difficult to play or sing?
The hardest Johnny Cash song to play is not even a Johnny Cash song; it was originally Hank Snow, but the one that we do is “I’ve Been Everywhere.” That was the hardest song for me to learn. That’s the song where the chorus is just him popping off all the towns. That one took some practice.
Musically, most of his songs are very simple, three-chord progression songs.
You’ve been praised for mastering Johnny’s stage moves. What are some of his distinctive mannerisms?
There was a particular way he held his guitar, and the way he stood and sung into the mic; a lot of times he was kind of from the side, he wouldn’t face it completely. And of course everyone knows he would hold his guitar out like a gun. There were some pretty odd head tics that he had. A lot of that unfortunately came from his abuse of methamphetamines; it was just a tic that he developed. It’s something most people don’t catch until they see it and then they say, “Oh yeah, he did do that, didn’t he?”
You used to play with Johnny Cash’s longtime drummer W.S. (Fluke) Holland. I don’t know if you’re still in touch, but wasn’t it weird for him being onstage with someone who so closely resembled Johnny?
He’s still a friend even though we haven’t seen each other in quite a long time. Every once in a while I’ll shoot him a text to see how he’s doing. To me personally, he never said anything (about the resemblance), but he did say something to my manager the first time we met, after he watched the show in the audience. He (said), basically, “That’s pretty creepy.”
You’ve been a mainstay in Quebec over the years, which seems a bit odd since many people in the audience likely can’t understand Cash’s lyrics. Any idea why the show resonates there?
Quebec is fantastic, man. I did a tour last year of 30 different Quebec cities. Even outside of the Johnny Cash aspect of things, I became known in the music business there: radio stations still play some of my own original music; I’ve been interviewed on TV; and I even did some acting on a sitcom TV show up there. There was definitely a large portion of my audience when I was in Quebec that didn’t speak English at all. I think it’s just what Johnny Cash represents — that Americana, that vintage aspect — that they just seem to really, really like up there.
Is there anything in your show that’s new or people won’t be expecting?
We cover pretty much all of Cash’s musical career, starting with the Sun records and early stuff up to some of the things he did with Rick Rubin and the American recordings. One thing we do in the show, I sit down with my acoustic guitar and I play a Leonard Cohen song. It’s a song (“Bird on the Wire”) that Johnny actually did record. Three years ago, I decided to put it in the show, just because I love the song. (When) Leonard Cohen passed away, we were up in Boston and the day he passed away, we sat down and did the song. Things take on a different meaning when the person behind it is gone.