Already performers, from Vince Gill, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers to Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers and Joanne Cash Yates, are confirmed to join show host Tommy Cash for the third annual Johnny Cash Music Festival this summer.
Per a March 19 missive shared with Examiner.com from Bill Carter, concert producer and festival founder, the 2013 event is set for August 17 and will once more take place at Arkansas State University’s Convocation Center,217 Olympic Drive, in Jonesboro, Ark., with a 7 p.m. start time.
As in year’s past, proceeds from this year’s event will fund the restoration of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home in Dyess, Ark., as well as support a scholarship fund established in the international superstar’s name. According to festival organizers' reports, already four people are attending ASU, thanks to the money raised at the previous events.
“We have been extremely happy not only with the progress on Johnny’s boyhood home, but also with the funding of this scholarship,” Carter said. “Johnny’s family made it clear from the start that giving children from his hometown area an opportunity to get a college education is something Johnny would have been very proud of."
Moreover, he continued, "(T)he Dyess area will benefit from the economic boost (that) we feel certain this museum will bring to the community. We’re grateful to the artists who are coming in this year to put on a great show for a great cause.”
As many hardcore Cash fans have come to know know, Cash’s family moved to Dyess and the 40 acres of land as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. Today, the restoration of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home is well under way, and per Dr. Ruth Hawkins, director of Arkansas Heritage Sites, the museum is projected to open in the spring 2014 as a museum to honor the legacy of the stamp-worthy "Man in Black."
“We have made great progress on the actual restoration of the house and are now working with members of the Cash family on acquiring the appropriate furnishings, which are being carefully researched,” Hawkins said. “Thanks to Joanne’s and Tommy’s great memories, it’s going to seem as if the Cash family has just stepped outside the door to head to church.”
Ticket info: Tickets for the Johnny Cash Music Festival will go on sale April 1 and are available at ASU’s Central Box Office and online at www.tickets.astate.edu. Tickets also may be purchased by logging onto the official website of the Johnny Cash Music Festival. To purchase tickets by phone, call 1-888-278-3267.
Last year's festival raised $200,000 that went toward the home's restoration, with musical aid from Dierks Bentley, Tommy Cash, Joanne Cash Yates (Johnny's brother and sister), Rosanne Cash, Joy Williams and John Paul White, and The Civil Wars.
- Multi-media views: To eye a video overview of the life of "The Man in Black," please access the clip embedded with this post. To see the late Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson sing "Ring of Fire," please click here. And to see a 17-photo, festival-related slideshow of the "Man and Black," please click here.
Comments