64 years ago this month, a 26-year-old Johnny Cash played Fredericton’s Lady Beaverbrook Rink on University Avenue.
David McGarth
On October 11, 1958, Johnny Cash released his debut album, Johnny Cash and His Hot and Blue Guitar! for Sun Records. The album featured four songs that Cash would perform for the rest of his career: I Walk The Line, Cry! Cry! Cry!, Some Doggone Lonesome and Folsom Prison Blues. Seven months later, while touring in support of his debut, Cash would appear on stage at Fredericton’s Lady Beaverbrook Arena for one of several performances in the province that month.
The tour also featured The Tennessee Two – Luther Perkins and Marshal Grant, the Osborne Brothers featuring fiddler Reg Allen, Orvale Prophet (performing as Johnny Six) and steel guitar player Dom Helms, who played in Hank Williams’ band.
Cash’s first New Brunswick tour also included performances in Campbellton, Newcastle, Moncton and Saint John.
Tickets for most performances were $1 except the Fredericton show which doubled as a fundraiser for the local Lions Club. Tickets for that performance were $1.25.
