The man in black is fine with The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, a band from San Diego, appropriating his name.
This band - that insists it's not a reinvention - will be playing Saturday at Puccini's Golden West Saloon.
Their latest album, Distance Between (Ultimatum Music), is of the crying-in-your-whiskey variety and represents the band's move toward the future. With the new album, The Bastard Sons broadens its introspective, emotional pallet.
The band is within the alternative country genre, which is really about transcending typical genre boundaries and mixing together elements of country, folk and roots rock. This album breathes an open-road atmosphere from the very beginning with the first song "1970 Monte Carlo," a tune with a definitive swingin' country twang that gives props to Johnny Cash. But this realm isn't where the album stays, and by track three, "Distance Between," the music is more reminiscent of Toad the Wet Sprocket.
Fronting this tightly written material is Mark Stuart whose vocals range from the brittle to the very smoothest of whispery tambours. Stuart confirms the band's attempt to bridge the gap between country and other styles while staying true to roving 18-wheeler highway songs.
"I never set out to make a strict country record," Stuart said in a press release. "On this (album) I wanted to put a Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash stamp on it, pulling things from all over the musical map and amalgamating them into as much emotion as we could."
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It's appropriate that the bastard sons, including lead guitarist Deane Cote, bassist Clark Stacer and drummer Joey Galvan got their start in juke joints and roadhouses. The grainy country sound is prevalent on the album, but tempered with a dreamy quality Stuart attributes to producer Mark Howard.
Howard has been a part of the production of such similarly pensive albums as Bob Dylan's Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind as well as U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind.
This album sounds like night driving on a highway, a mid-tempo cruiser that can play background to self-inspection on a warm desert night. "Tears of Gold" is particularly strong in that semi-desolate vein. Still, /+does an excellent job of maintaining a balance between the depressing and buoyant.
The next song serves up a dish of randy feeling and distorted, crunchy guitar riffs. "I smell gasoline," Stuart yells and you can almost envision a bar getting rowdy during the song's performance.
Overall, The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash embody the greatness of old-school country, while still maintaining an evident thirst for traveling new musical terrain.
The Bastard Sons will be playing at 9 p.m. Saturday night at Puccini's Golden West saloon, 620 Central Ave.
