Celebrate Johnny Cash’s Birthday Bash featuring James Garner at The Center for the Arts on Feb. 25

GRASS VALLEY, CA, January 30, 2023 – The Center for the Arts is pleased to welcome back Johnny Cash’s Birthday Bash Featuring James Garner on February 25, 2023. James Garner’s Tribute to Johnny Cash celebrates the life and music of the legendary ‘Man in Black’ with strong conviction, stunning accuracy, and a commanding stage presence that elicits goosebumps from his arresting portrayal.

Garner and his band have performed more than 500 professional shows and faithfully recreate Cash’s biggest hits with present historical accounts and personal anecdotes about America’s most beloved singing storyteller in this not-to-be-missed musical event. 

Since 2008, Garner and his band have toured across the country, honoring Johnny Cash and his musical legacy. A special show at Folsom State Prison in 2008 commemorated the 40th anniversary of Cash’s infamous live album recorded behind prison walls. The band returned to Folsom, California in January 2018 on the 50th anniversary of the prison concert, performing two sold-out shows at the Harris Center for the Arts, with guest artists Tara Cash (Johnny Cash’s youngest daughter), along with reporter Gene Beley and photographer Dan Poush, who had been at the prison to cover the original concert. The shows included songs from the Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison album and stories by Tara Cash about her legendary father. For a commemoration of a different nature, Garner and the band performed at the U.S. Post Office in Claremont, California at the official unveiling of the Johnny Cash stamp in June 2013. 

For Garner, the love of Johnny Cash’s music started at an early age. “I started listening to Johnny Cash music when I was about 12 years old,” said Garner. “The first song I heard by him was ‘Don’t Take Your Guns to Town’ and I was hooked. A few years later, I saw the Man in Black in concert and got to meet him backstage following the show. Shaking hands with Johnny Cash is still the coolest experience I’ve ever had.”

The musicians have recorded three CDs: James Garner: A Musical Tribute to Johnny Cash (2009), Shades of Black (2012), and James Garner’s Tribute to Johnny Cash: LIVE! (2015). PBS affiliate KBIE filmed the band’s concert performance for a Johnny Cash special Live in Concert – James Garner’s Tribute to Johnny Cash, featuring selections from the concert, which aired on Northern California broadcast stations in December 2016.

The performance for you today features Cash favorites such as “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line” and “Ring of Fire,” along with other hits the country giant recorded and performed in a career that spanned six decades.  

Enjoy this fun, toe-tapping trip down memory lane honoring Johnny Cash’s life and music, and the boom-chicka-boom sound of his longtime backing band, the Tennessee Three at The Center for the Arts on February 25, 2023.