Tennessee Three
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tennessee Three was the backing band for legendary country music and rockabilly singer Johnny Cash, for over 40 years until Cash's semi-retirement in 1996.
From his early stardom with Sun Records until his last years as a performer, Johnny Cash chose only to work with one band and depended upon them to provide him with the unique sound that would come to be recognized by millions of fans the world over as "The Johnny Cash sound."
The band began in the mid-1950s as The Tennessee Two, consisting of Cash's friends and collaborators Luther Perkins on electric guitar and Marshall Grant on bass guitar. Perkins was the author of the band's famous steady, simple "boom-chicka-boom" or "freight train" rhythm.
In 1960, drummer W.S. Holland joined the group, which was then renamed The Tennessee Three. Holland is credited as the first Rock & Roll drummer, in the early 1950s, and had collaborated with Cash on some previous recordings.
Luther Perkins died in a house fire in 1968. Authorities were uncertain whether it was suicide or foul play. Cash believed Perkins fell asleep with a lit cigarette.
Bob Wootton then joined as the group's guitarist, and continued Perkins' unique sound that had defined so many of Cash's records. Wootton had been a Cash fan for many years and was familiar with the technicalities of how to produce the proper Cash sound.
In 1971, the group recorded an instrumental album dedicated to Perkins: The Tennessee Three: The Sound Behind Johnny Cash.
Marshall Grant left the group in 1980, and since then others have joined the group, so it now contains more than three members, with Wooton and Holland remaining as the group's anchors.
In 2006, the group released a tribute album to Johnny Cash titled "The Sound Must Go On."
[edit] Trivia
- It is reported that during his early shows with the "Tennessee Two", Cash would sometimes make mocking introductions of his bandmates. He would introduce laconic guitarist Luther Perkins (who was secretly terrified of performing in public) and add either that he was in "rigor mortis" or that his pulse had been checked beforehand to make sure he was still alive. Then he would introduce bassist Marshall Grant, who would usually hop around and dance with great energy as he chewed gum at shows, as "playing the chewing gum."
- In his live version of Folsom Prison Blues, at the end of one verse just before the song's well-known guitar riff, Cash can be heard saying, "Hit it, Luther!"
[edit] Walk the Line
In the 2005 film biography of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line, the band members were portrayed by the following actors. True to their supposed characterizations described earlier, Perkins was played as stiff and expressionless onstage, while Grant was played as animated and gregarious:
- Luther Perkins - Dan John Miller
- Marshall Grant - Larry Bagby
- W.S. Holland - Clay Steakley
The film contains a subtle foreshadowing of Perkins' fate, in a brief scene in which Perkins falls asleep with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Cash retrieves the cigarette and stubs it out.
[edit] External links
Promotion for the DVD release of "Walk the Line" included a history-making screening of the film at Hollywood's famed Arclight Cinema wherein actors in the film and their real-life counterparts performed a set of Cash's music prior to the screening. Original Tennessee Three members, Bob Wootton and WS Holland were among those to perform as well as serve on a speaking panel after the film. Also in attendance was Jane Seymour, wife of the film's producer, James Keach.
