Johnny Cash

September 19, 2005 7:41 AM

I was watching this Johnny Cash documentary on Ovation last night (JC: The Man, His World, His Music), and there's a scene in which Johnny, at the country music awards show in Nashville in the 1970s, asks some young guy to play him some tunes backstage. He then says he's going to get the guy an audition with CBS records. Anybody have have any idea who the aspiring troubadour was, apparently from Canada and with a bit of warbly voice?
posted by jgballard to media & arts (19 comments total)

I don't know the answer to this, but you may mean CBC records, if you think he's Canadian.
posted by fionab at 7:51 AM on September 19, 2005

There's a CBC records?
posted by maledictory at 8:21 AM on September 19, 2005

CBS is probably correct; JC was on CBS for a while in the 70s. Just because someone's Canadian doesn't mean they can't record on an American record label.

To address the actual question, sorry, I don't know who this singer was, but now I'm interested to find out as well.
posted by boomchicka at 8:26 AM on September 19, 2005

Yes, it was CBS, because the scene took place in Nashville and the Canadian guy had come down... and JC was on CBS... but still, who's the mystery man?
posted by jgballard at 8:32 AM on September 19, 2005

Neil Young?
posted by transient at 8:44 AM on September 19, 2005

hmmm....canadian troubadour. Gordon Lightfoot?
posted by cosmicbandito at 8:45 AM on September 19, 2005

OK, I thought you meant you inferred he was Canadian by JC saying he'd get him an audition at the CBC, but if he was identified *as* Canadian, that makes sense. It was just parsed oddly in my brain. Continue as normal...
posted by fionab at 8:46 AM on September 19, 2005

Canadian with a warbly voice? Could it have been Neil Young, by any chance? Given that the movie was released in 1969, it would be about the right time frame.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:47 AM on September 19, 2005

Don't think it was Neil, because it didn't really look like him or sound like him, but also wouldn't he already have been recording with Buffalo Springfield and not really needed an audition? Maybe the guy never went anywhere and is lost to history.
posted by jgballard at 9:07 AM on September 19, 2005

No, that's way too late for Neil Young. Young already had 5 albums released by the end of 1969 - solo and with Buffalo Springfield. In addition he'd already had a previous contract with an old band with Motown Records. So I highly doubt Neil Young would have needed any kind of recommendation from Johnny Cash by then.

It could have been Lightfoot, who in the mid-60s had written several songs for Cash, but starting in 1966 he was already releasing albums on US labels (United Artists released his first albums in the US). He could have been dropped by his US label or something though, so it's not out of the question.

I doubt it was Lightfoot, though, as he was already 32 in 1969 and I don't think Lightfoot EVER looked young.
posted by mikel at 9:11 AM on September 19, 2005

Could it have been Columbia Records, not CBS?

...he not only auditions a hopeful young singer backstage, but instantly sets up a session for him at Columbia Records --as the boy stands understandably speechless in rapt appreciation.
posted by thejimp at 9:21 AM on September 19, 2005

Sorry, I'm stupid. CBS=Columbia
posted by thejimp at 9:24 AM on September 19, 2005

Don Freed.
posted by karmaville at 9:25 AM on September 19, 2005

OK, on further Googling, I found the answer in a review in the NY Times.

Quote from the review:

The best sequence in "Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music" doesn't feature Cash, or June Carter, or even Mother Maybelle or the Tennessee Three. Rather, it introduces a young man who is not, I believe, mentioned in the screen credits.



His name is Don Freed, and he auditions two songs for Cash ("Bank of Mariposa" and "Come Away from the Roadside"). He plays the harmonica and the guitar, and he sings in a tight, pleading voice that seems to know all the conventions and truths of sadness. I think he is extraordinary, and if there were no other attraction (there are many), he would be reason enough for seeing the movie.

posted by mikel at 9:27 AM on September 19, 2005

Don Freed's website is here. He teaches kids, primarily in Manitoba, about music. Cool guy.
posted by solid-one-love at 9:51 AM on September 19, 2005

Don Freed
AskMe wins again. I love this place.
posted by Popular Ethics at 12:07 PM on September 19, 2005

I saw Don Freed at the Winnipeg Folk Festival a few years ago, and sadly the only thing I remember of his performance was a jokey song with the chorus:

Don Freeeeeeed! Don Free-eed!
He built the mighty railroad across this mighty land!
posted by teg at 10:16 PM on September 19, 2005

I think he's Joni Mitchell's boyfriend now.
posted by mikel at 3:04 PM on September 20, 2005

I have to admit, I am afraid of the Cash/Mitchell Continuum.
posted by subgenius at 11:58 AM on October 7, 2005