Family Members, Cory Jackson Added to Cash Festival Lineup
JONESBORO – Members of the Cash family, including Johnny Cash’s sister Joanne Cash and brother Tommy Cash, will be among the performers for the 2019 Johnny Cash Heritage Festival, which is Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 17-19, in Dyess.
Festival host Rosanne Cash made the announcement Thursday in Little Rock. The family members will join headliners Rosanne and Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives for the Saturday afternoon benefit concert. The theme for the concert is “Legacy, Love, and Music.”
“Last month, we announced that Marty Stuart would be joining me in headlining this event,” said Rosanne. “Today, I am proud to announce that my father’s two living siblings, who both grew up in the house, also will be performing,” said Rosanne. “This will be along with some of my dad’s nieces, nephews and grandchildren who are carrying on the family music tradition that began around my grandmother’s piano in Dyess, Arkansas.
“The music the Cash family sang in the fields, in their church, and in their Dyess, Arkansas, home formed the background of their lives,” Rosanne added. “For my father, it became the center, and the wellspring from which he drew his inspiration. In keeping with our theme, we will be honoring our family’s musical genealogy that began here in Arkansas.”
Rosanne also announced the addition of Jonesboro native and current Arkansas Country Music Association Country Artist of the Year Cory Jackson to the lineup.
Joanne Cash
Joanne Cash is the sixth of seven children in the Cash family. While working in the 1970s at House of Cash, her brother’s famed recording studio, office space and museum, Joanne became involved with singing at church and began singing at the Grand Ole Opry on Fridays from 1972-76 with Jimmy Rodgers Snow’s “Grand Ole Gospel Time.”
Joanne, who has recorded 31 albums, has a gospel music ministry at the Nashville Cowboy Church, which she co-founded with her husband, Dr. Harry Yates. She still sings there each Sunday.
She recently released Unbroken, an album of duets with several top artists. One of her songs on the album, “I Am the One,” was recorded with Grammy-nominated country, gospel and soul singer T. Graham Brown, and went to No. 1 in the GTE (Glory Train Entertainment) music magazine’s chart on both the national and international charts and No. 12 in Cashbox Magazine. She also has been nominated for four Arkansas Country Music Awards.
In 2013, Joanne was featured in a documentary film about her life, career and faith called “I Do Believe,” and shared her life through an autobiography, “My Fears are Gone.” She and her husband were inducted into the International Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Tommy Cash
Tommy Cash, the youngest of Johnny Cash’s siblings, formed his first band in high school and enlisted in the Army after graduation, where he was a disc jockey for the American Forces Radio Network. After his Army service, he played with Hank Williams Jr., and later gained a record deal from Musicor in 1965.
He released his first major album in 1968 through United Artists, followed by six albums on the Epic Label, including his biggest hit, “Six White Horses.” The song is dedicated to John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1970, he had two Top Ten singles: “One Song Away” and “Rise and Shine,” and the Top 20 hit, “I Recall a Gypsy Woman.”
Tommy has a background in broadcasting, and his voice has been heard commercially for major brand name clients. In 2016, he played a major role in the film The River Thief. Tommy has been a guest on NBC, ABC, CBS, TNN (The Nashville Network) and his videos have played on CMT (Country Music Television) and TNN.
Cory Jackson
Jackson was born in Jonesboro and grew up in a small rural farm community just outside of Jonesboro, where he attended Westside School District.
He has released two albums, and is currently working on a third. The first, his self-titled EP "Cory Jackson," was released in February of 2015. His second EP, "Let's Get It Right," was released in May of 2016.
One single, “Row by Row,” off the new project was released last summer. The song was written by Jackson and Matt Thomas, a member of Jackson’s band. His second single, which he has writer credit, was released in July 2018, called “Feel Good Happenin’.”
In June 2018, the ACMA awarded Jackson with “Country Artist of the Year.” He also received a top five nomination for Entertainer of the Year, and his video for “Row by Row” was nominated for ACMA Video of the Year. He has again received a top five nomination in the category of “Country Artist of the Year,” with the winner to be announced at the live awards show June 3. Recently, Jackson was named 2019 “Best Vocalist” in the “Best of Northeast Arkansas” sponsored by the Jonesboro Radio Group.
Festival Tickets
In addition to the $15 tickets (plus applicable fees) for the Friday Special Presentations, tickets for the culminating concert Saturday, Oct. 19, also are available through the festival website or the Central Box Office in A-State’s First National Bank Arena. Concert ticket prices are $35 plus applicable fees for general admission; $100 plus applicable fees for reserved chair seating; and $200 plus applicable fees for a Full Circle Package (limited number available). The Full Circle Package includes seating in a special reserved section for the concert, field parking adjacent to the concert, admission to the ticketed Friday afternoon special presentations, and an invitation to a private Friday evening “suppertime stations” event with the Cash family.
A limited number of parking passes for the field adjacent to the concert are available to $100 ticket purchasers for $50 until spaces run out. They can be purchased by contacting the Central Box Office at the above numbers. (Parking passes cannot be purchased online.) Passes will be mailed out, along with a parking map, directions and instructions.
The festival is coordinated through Arkansas State University Heritage Sites and licensed through the John R. Cash Revocable Trust.
