General, Rebel Join Forces For Show

Whoever said that politics makes strange bedfellows never had a chance to contemplate Wednesday’s double bill at the Spokane Arena.

Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, military leader of the Gulf War forces, and Johnny Cash, rebel icon and country singer - together, on the same stage, in a show called “Stars: a Celebration of Heroes.”

Stormin’ Norman meets the Man in Black. Military might meets one of country music’s bad boys.

As Texas songwriter Guy Clark would say, “Now, there’s a hand to draw to, boys.”

Schwarzkopf is here because he’s a retiring director of Washington Water Power, the show’s presenter; Cash is here to draw a crowd.

Cash will sing and Schwarzkopf will deliver what WWP spokesman Rob Strenge calls an “inspirational speech.”

But the real stars of the show, WWP says, “will be a group of community heroes who will be saluted during the program.” Six people were selected from names nominated by local residents.

Schwarzkopf earned his fame on the battlefield, but he also comes highly recommended as a speaker and public figure. In 1992, he was named Best Speaker by Toastmasters International. He has participated in a number of CBS television specials, including the Peabody Award-winning “D-Day.”

He’s involved in a number of causes, including pediatric pain reduction, cure of paralysis and prostrate cancer awareness. He and Paul Newman founded the Boggy Creek Gang, a proposed camp in Florida for children with chronic illnesses. He is also active in nature and wildlife conservation.

Cash, on the other hand, is known for one thing and one thing only, writing and singing great music. He is a seven-time Grammy winner and a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

But perhaps what’s most remarkable about Cash is his ability to make himself relevant for generation after generation. He broke through in the ‘50s, riding the Sun Records rockabilly sound, and survived to influence Bob Dylan and other leading singer/songwriters of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. In his most recent renaissance, he has won over younger fans with two dark records for the hip label American Records, on which he covers such contemporary acts as Soundgarden and Beck.

Cash was born in 1932 (two years before Schwarzkopf’s birth in New Jersey) and escaped Arkansas poverty via the Air Force. He bought a guitar while serving in Germany in the early 1950s and wrote “Folsom Prison Blues.”

He wasn’t in prison when he wrote that song, as folk wisdom has it, though Merle Haggard was when he first heard it.

“I was in the prison band when I first heard him in San Quentin,” Haggard recalls. “I was impressed with his ability to take 5,000 convicts and steal the show away from a bunch of strippers.”

Although he considered himself a country singer from the beginning, Cash turned his back on Nashville, the heart of the country music universe. He would make his career in Memphis, Tenn., where black music held sway.

“I never did try to get heard in Nashville,” he told an interviewer. “I was determined that I was going to record in Memphis. I liked the music coming out of that town, the feel and the sound, but when it came out of me, it was a little more countrified.”

Cash signed with Sun Records in 1956 and scored five Top 10 hits in the next year, including the love song, “I Walk the Line,” which crossed over to the pop charts and forever will be a Cash calling card.

The next year, Cash found himself in the same studio as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. One entire branch of contemporary music was built on the shoulders of those four men, the giants of the fusion of black music and country called rockabilly.

Cash and his group, the Tennessee Two, played rockabilly with a straightforward, unpretentious zest. His sound evolved over the years, and he has covered the music of many musicians.

But, more important, many other musicians have covered his songs and based their careers on his sound.

“We learned more from Johnny Cash than you can learn from any other one single person,” said Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers.

“Johnny Cash is the reason I play country,” echoed singer Marty Stuart. “He is bigger than life.”

Cash will perform with his wife, June Carter, and John Carter Cash.

The Spokane Symphony and the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus also will perform. The evening will include a showing of “Homecoming,” WWP’s 1991 multimedia show honoring Inland Northwest residents who served in the Gulf War.

The six people who will be honored are Kimberly Calman Holt of Lewiston; George Nadler of Bayview, Idaho; Mike Martin of Chattaroy and Bill Bialkowsky, Denise Osei, and Twyla Lubben, all of Spokane.

The event will benefit four local nonprofit agencies: the Spokane Food Bank, the Inland Northwest Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Family Service Programs of Fairchild Air Force Base and the Success by Six, a community childhood reading program.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT “Stars: A Celebration of Heroes,” featuring Norman Schwarzkopf, Johnny Cash, the Spokane Symphony and the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus, will be presented at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Spokane Arena. Tickets are $18, $14.50 and $9.75, available at G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.