Print this story | E-mail story | Add a comment | iPod friendly | Bookmark this What is this?

Cash guitarist to return to Austin

Staff

Published Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Bob Wootton, Johnny Cash’s legendary guitar player of 30 years, will join southern Minnesota’s rock band Six Mile Grove for a concert at the Austin VFW Club Saturday, Nov. 22.

Six Mile Grove will perform one set, featuring songs from their new CD Steel Mule and join Wootton on stage.

The special guest will be singing and playing classic Johnny Cash songs with Six Mile Grove as his backing band.

There will be a meet-and-greet with the artists from 7 to 8 p.m. Nov. 22. Music starts at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door and can be purchased by calling the VFW at 433-6039.

Wootton, the man behind “the man in black,” played lead guitar for Johnny Cash from 1968 to 1998. He has performed all over the world, from Folsom Prison to the Buckingham Palace.

Few people know Johnny Cash and his music as closely as Wootton does.

“When I first met him, I was very much in awe,” Wootton said of meeting Cash. “We became very close over the years and what we had in common ... it was like I had known him all my life.”

“I have other brothers, but he was like no other brother to me,” Wootton said.

Wootton returned to the stage for the first time since playing with Cash in January 2004, headlining a two night sold-out Cash tribute at the Cabooze in Minneapolis with Six Mile Grove as his band.

Since that return to the stage, he has returned to the Midwest several times to tour with Six Mile Grove, as well as touring regularly across the country and in Europe with his family band that includes his wife and daughters.

Jack Sparks of the City Pages wrote about Wootton’s performances, “(he) owns the stage like a pro … authenticity rocks.”

Six Mile Grove is an “Americana” band with roots generations deep in the corn fields of southern Minnesota. The band has toured across the United States from the heart of New York City to the hills of Fairplay, Colo.

They have shared the stage with Wootton, Kentucky Headhunters, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Gear Daddies.

Their album “Bumper Crop” is charting and receiving airplay on Americana and country radio stations in the US and Europe.

For information about Six Mile Grove, visit www.sixmilegrove.com and www.my space.com/sixmilegrove.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?