Hillbilly Music: Fade to Black

I don't get out much now, but when I followed a link on Hillbilly Savants to the website of Black Cash and the Bad Trips, I knew that I would have to make a rare trip into downtown Richmond. In the five or six years that I have lived in the central Virginia area I can count on one hand how many times I have been downtown.
I don't know what it is about the greater Richmond area but there is this insular vibe and indeed a lack of a true outer belt which makes it difficult for the less adventurous transplants to get from one area to the other. That is a shame because there is a bunch of cool things to do and see scattered all about this historic hamlet. But my own difficulties be damned this time, I was going out to see me some live music.

I had heard of Black Cash before from another post on Hillbilly Savants and the post had informed me that they were based out of Richmond. I don't really have to tell you all that they are a Johnny Cash tribute act, do I? On Black Cash's website (which looks very similar to Rednecromancer) I found the schedule and was very pleased to see that the boys in black had an up-coming date at the Tobacco Company on Cary St. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Confederate Capital, Cary Street is one of the happening if not the most happening pieces of pavement in town.

With some help from Google Maps and Xstine (I take her directions with a gain of salt since the girl is dyslexic as all hell), I got a good idea of how to get down to that section of Cary St. I actually took the first exit to W. Cary even though the Tobacco Company is on E. Cary and took it all across the city. That did two things for me. It made sure that I got on the target street as soon as possible and kept me from having to pay any damned tolls. I don't care to pay them but I don't have the transponder in my new truck and I live in fear of getting stuck at a toll booth without any change and no attendant.

So I finally pass by the Tobacco Company and down the hill a few blocks until I am able to take the next to last parking space in a public parking lot. No, I ain't parking my new truck on the street to have some drunk idiot scrape it while trying to parallel park. I paid the parking lot attendant the Mr. Lincoln (you hear that Jeff Davis!) and climbed back up the hill to the restaurant.

The Tobacco Company is neat. It is one of the first properties in the Shockoe Slip to be refurbished in the revitalized tobacco and cotton district. Having tobacco encoded into my DNA as a scion of a 200 year old tobacco dynasty, I felt at home in this former tobacco warehouse. The décor is Victorian with great hewed beams supporting two dinning balconies overlooking the open, nightclub atrium.

The doorman was friendly and thin. I hate to be a bigot but I hate doormen who look like bouncers. If an establishment looks like they are expecting trouble, they will get trouble. Having some barrel chested ape at the door is a turn off. He feller asked if I was dinning and I replied that I was there for the band. He pointed out the tables in front of the stage and the bar areas to the immediate left and explained that the the music would start in an hour or so. There is never a cover. This is nice in a way and very necessary for an establishment that is primarily a restaurant, but I have learned from experience as a musician and a patron, that people value what they have to pay for.

I opted for the bar area and climbed up the couple of wide steps to the bar. The nightclub area was not yet very crowded but I spied a man in black at the far end of the bar and made my way to the empty stool next to him. I figured by his kit that he was in the band or a serious fan. Either way I would get the information I wanted. I sat down and ordered an non alcoholic beer and asked of the space around me “when is this band supposed to start up?” Now I knew damn well from the the Tobacco Company site stated that the Friday and Saturday music started at 9:30, but I need an ice breaker. The gaunt feller beside me with a glass of what looked to be water and a cigarette said, “we will probably start after 10 since we have an opening act and they don't want us to start before most people are done eating.”

“So you are in the band?” I stated more than asked. “Yeah, I am the lead singer” came his reply that was slightly flavored with that typical bit of lead singer ego that all of us lead singers have to have. I then said more assured, “you are Matte Black and the reason I came here tonight.” He offered his hand and thanked me for coming out.

I told him about the mention on the Appalachian website and we talked about gigging and how hard it is. We talked about finding others who share your music tastes which led to a discussion of New Model Army and the first Gulf War of which Matte is a veteran. He was a sailor if I remember right. I didn't mention that I had a high school friend killed in the first Gulf.

I told him a bit about the website and said that I would like to have a few quotes from him. He agreed that that sounded good and that we should exchange business cards but had to head off to prepare with the band. I like him.

Slowly the bar started to fill up and get progressively less comfortable. By the time that Black Cash's sound man, Cristo had finished his totally adequate coffee shop set and traded his guitar for a sound board, my knees were getting battered by the constant movement of pedestrians trying to find a comfortable spot to stand and the cocktail waitresses who were not as friendly as the bartenders and seemed to view the patrons as obstacles instead of customers. And so as not to be accused of sexism the bartenders were both male and female and much less bitchy than the little black dresses.

Soon six figures in ill fitting black suits made their way to the stage. I didn't take notes and I can't remember the first song in the first set, but through out the night they earned their journeyman's credentials. They were tight enough without being mechanical. No doubt they have the technical skill to give that type of performance but it would be totally inappropriate for a Johnny Cash tribute act. The dual leads were able to provide most all of the instrumentation and accent to support all of Johnny's phases. One feller played a Telecaster and the other leader player some type of Fender body with more knobs and switches than the space shuttle. The old stuff is obviously easier to play with limited pieces as Johnny did it with just two other musicians on electric guitar and upright bass with Johnny on the six string acoustic. But the dual lead set up seemed to allow Black Cash to imitate a wider range of instruments that have been present in the many periods of Johnny's career.

Along with Matte who played no instrument and the dual leads was a six string acoustic, a bass and a drummer who had just enough of an extra drum kit to make Rusty Cage rock without giving him the temptation to over play on the other songs. I love a rhythm section that knows when not to play. I don't like jazz. You see my bias here.

Matte doesn't look much like Johnny Cash aside from the greased, wavy black hair. His wiry frame and cigarette tanned face would remind you much more of Hank senior. Matte is a punker make no doubt about it. This is just fine because Johnny was a punker. Johnny Cash was the original DIY artist. But Matte's self deprecating jibes about being a professional jackass not withstanding, he was most gracious to everyone in the establishment. Sure the man is sucking up to would be fans, but he spent just as much time on thanking his fans of four years. The thanked the management, the bartenders, the cigarette girl, his sound man and even the surly waitresses.

The Man in Black was all about the man with the blue-collar and the most touching moment of the night came when Matte asked the crowd to give warm round of applause for a soldier who was shipping out to Iraq the next day. By and large rich kids aren't headed to Iraq and Matte knows it. As a vet from the first Gulf he knows it better than the rest of us. As he said to the crowd, “it doesn't matter your politics” we are all in debt to these Americans. Matte was very typically Johnny Cash; a cigarette smoking, personal Jesus who knows that showing love and charity to the least among us it the surest way to happiness for all.

But can he sing? Well really I don't care all that much about if a person can sing after years of American Idol, but yeah he can sing. On a good portion of Johnny's tunes, Matte is almost a perfect mimic. On other some of the other songs especially Rusty Cage and Hank and Waylon's tunes Matte shows his power as a vocalist. But honestly that is secondary to his role as a performer and teacher. For many folks, a Black Cash show is going to be more education about Johnny Cash than they are liable to get outside of the movie. One will learn a great deal about the history of the songs and Johnny's collaborations with other artists.

There were reasons for the clothes that Johnny had on his back or so he said in the song, Man in Black. And they were much the same reasons that Johnny wrote and played the songs he did. Black Cash and the Bad Trips seems to be acutely aware of this fact and are not only here to entertain folks with Johnny's music but to carry on Johnny's message.

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