County Line Roadhouse, a Dayton-area rockabilly band, will be performing alongside Moreau’s tribute to the Man in Black.
The show isn’t set at a certain time or place, but lies in the nebulous space where Cash was at the height of his power, when he was one of the most notable and popular musicians on the planet, circa 1972 or ‘73. The idea of the show is also somewhat nebulous, living in a space somewhere between concert and Broadway musical.
When Moreau walks out, he says, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” and for the entirety of the show, while the audience sits there, he is Johnny. Moreau speaks in his voice. The stories are all told from Johnny’s perspective, derived from source material like interviews, books and concert films and recordings.
There are around 28 songs in the show, with context worked in for a majority of those.
“What I find people enjoy the most is the stories,” Moreau said. “Most people don’t know a lot about his actual life, and his interactions with some of the more popular artists of the 20th century. I found that as much as people love his music, that’s the reason that they go, and leave the most interested in.”
Moreau, a stage actor of 27 years, was on the first national tour of “Million Dollar Quartet”: a jukebox musical dramatizing a recording session between Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Cash, which took place on Dec. 4, 1956.
As an understudy on the tour, Moreau was basically eating, sleeping and breathing Johnny Cash 24 hours a day. It gave him the ability to embody Cash without having to perform every night, meanwhile soaking in as much music and lore as possible — he became obsessed.
His interests piqued with a perfect storm as “Million Dollar Quartet” took off in Chicago, the popularity of Broadway musical “Ring of Fire” and the 2005 biopic, “Walk the Line.” Moreau then wrote his version of Johnny’s story.
“Walkin’ the Line” explores Cash’s youth in rural Arkansas, his connection to trains, his friendship with Bob Dylan, his relationship with June Carter Cash, among other anecdotes.
“I’ve been doing it for so long now I don’t really have to think about it, because it’s like he’s another part of me. He just has been for so long,” Moreau said. “I take his legacy and his music very seriously. There’s no caricature about it. Nothing is heightened. I’m really just trying to be down to earth and authentic, and just be the storyteller that he was and connect to people in that way.”
He has performed “Walkin’ the Line” with some of the best musicians in upstate New York, Quebec City, Montreal, Phoenix and the M Casino in Las Vegas. His shows have the flexibility to add songs by request, or to use local musicians as his backing band — as is the case at the upcoming APAC show.
“We’re honored and a little bit humbled that they would have enough confidence to call us up and ask us to play with him,” said Michael Patrick, from County Line Roadhouse, known for playing classic country and classic rock around the area.
Moreau provides charts and a script ahead of time — everything that prepares the backing band for when Johnny Cash, effectively, comes to town. There will be a lengthy rehearsal the day of the performance, a spontaneity apropos with Cash’s true outlaw country character.
“What I think separates what I do from other things like it is that I give context to a lot of music that people don’t really know about,” Moreau said. “They think they know a song, and then they hear what it’s about, and it completely blows their mind and changes their perspective about him as a songwriter and just him as a person.”
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music and art scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: Ultimate Johnny Cash tribute
When: 7 p.m., Jan. 11
Where: Arbogast Performing Arts Center, 500 S. Dorset Rd., Troy
Cost: $30 - $45, general admission
Tickets: arbogastpac.com/events
About the Author