The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Festival set to cash in on Fife link to Johnny Cash
Celebrating musician’s legacy, inspiration and family connections to Strathmiglo area
A new festival celebrating country music superstar Johnny Cash’s legacy, inspiration and his family connections to Fife is to be held in 2020.
Organisers of Cash Back in Fife, which is due to be held at Aberdour’s Woodside Hotel from March 6 to 8, have stressed that the event is not a tribute festival to the “Man in Black” but rather a showcase of artists mostly performing their own material with some Cash classics thrown in.
The line-up is an exciting mix of established musicians and quality up-and-coming ones, while Rebus author Ian Rankin will also appear to talk about one of his favourite records by Fife musician Jackie Leven.
The festival is the brainchild of Edinburgh-based singer songwriter Dean Owens, who was amazed to find out more about Cash’s connections with the Strathmiglo area – with the surname traced back to the time of Malcolm IV, King of Scots, in the mid-12th Century.
Cash and his family regularly visited Fife after the links became apparent, and he even recorded a TV special in Falkland with Andy Williams in 1981.
Owens, who released an album entitled Cash Back (Songs I Learned From Johnny), approached the Woodside Hotel in Aberdour with the idea for the festival after playing a gig there earlier this year and secured an agreement from owner John McTaggart to go ahead with it from March 6 to 8.
“After playing a show at the Woodside Hotel in Aberdour earlier this year I went for a wander round the village and fell in love with the place,” he explained.
“I remembered reading an article about Johnny Cash and his family connections to Fife. Being a massive fan of Johnny, I thought it would be great to celebrate his legacy in Fife by putting on a small festival there.
“I reached out to some amazing artists I know, including Rab Noakes and Ian Rankin – both of whom have strong connections with Fife – and they loved the idea.”
The new spring festival will include several of Fife’s best-known singersongwriters, including Noakes and Kirsten Adamson, Glasgow Americana star Martha Healy and Liverpudlian Hannah Rose.
Cardenden-born Rankin will be discussing how Cash influenced the music of the late Fife singer-songwriter Jackie Leven, who collaborated with the author on a stage show and album.
The crime writer said: “I remember as a kid being stunned when I saw photos of Johnny Cash in our local newspaper – he was on a visit to Falkland and seemed to have been beamed down from another planet.
“As a long-time fan of his music – my big sister played Live At San Quentin on heavy rotation – it’s a distinct honour to be asked to participate in a festival celebrating the man and his music.”
It’s a distinct honour to be asked to participate in a festival celebrating the man and his music. IAN RANKIN