Cash’d Out keeps Cash’s legacy rockin’

Benson, along with Kevin Manuel, George Bernardo and Ryan Thomas, make up the Johnny Cash tribute band. The San Diego-based quartet has traveled across the country performing some of Cash’s best songs. In fact, the band recently got back from a trip to Alaska.

“It was our first time out there and we were surprised by the response,” he says. “It was also very warm. When we first saw the temperature out there, it was supposed to be in the negatives. When we arrived it was a balmy 10 or so. We lucked out.”

Cash’d Out also is trying to get together a new album for release this year.

“It’s pretty much a matter of me getting the guys together and getting it started,” he explains. “Once we get it started, it’s a pretty easy process.”

The band has been around since 2005, and Benson says he started it because he loves Cash’s music. When he decided to start the band, he took out an ad in the San Diego Reader and found the other three members.

“It was meant to be that we would all come together,” he says. “From the get-go, we all got along really well and wanted the same thing from the band.”

	Cash’d Out WHEN: 8 p.m. Sunday, March 3 WHERE: Low Spirits Bar & Stage, 2823 Second NW HOW MUCH: $10 at www.holdmyticket.com or 886-1251

The group has more than 150 Johnny Cash songs in its repertoire and can play for four hours straight, respectfully referencing everything from his Sun Records and early Columbia era sound, to his energetic, multiplatinum live recordings at Folsom Prison and San Quentin.

Benson says the proof that Cash’d Out’s genuine love for Johnny Cash’s music makes for an authentic recreation of it is in the response from Cash’s inner circle.

He says the group also is the only tribute band officially endorsed by the Johnny Cash web page, JohnnyCash.com.