Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash

Described by Rolling Stone as “pure Americana heart and soul”, The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash are the voice and vision of singer songwriter Mark Stuart. Since forming the band in 1995, he’s performed with most every major artist in the Country and Americana music community. Stuart was personally given permission to use the band’s name by Johnny Cash himself. He was also honored by the Man in Black with an invitation to record songs at Cash’s own home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Two other iconic music legends, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, were also early believers who were instrumental in helping Stuart get his start.

“They are, in fact, a brawny roadhouse honky tonk band doing stuff not unlike what you could have heard on Hal Ketchum or Dwight Yoakam records during the ’90s. The vigorous, freewheeling “No Honky Tonks” mourns the demise of real country music and real country venues from California to Texas and Oklahoma (whose Red Dirt is “just rock and roll to me,” Stuart hazards). It’s that restless desire to keep thoughtful, traditional country music alive that keeps the boys “Highway Bound” – where the album starts – and ultimately leads to the kind of staring down of consequences at home exemplified by its final chapter, “Bounds of Your Heart.”…… – California Country