Sometimes tribute acts suck, other times they don’t, sometimes they are just plain strange, other times they are bang on the mark.
So I had to check out Big River — Almost Johnny Cash at Coyote Joes, Aug. 6.
The B.C. based tribute act featuring Dave Pittet, who is a dead ringer for a young Johnny Cash and even Joaquin Phoenix’s Johnny Cash from the movie, “Walk The Line,” definitely had the look down and they definitely had the sound.
They played an array of Johnny Cash hits, alternating between familiar standards, like “Cry, Cry , Cry”, and “I Got Stripes” and more modern songs like his covers of “Hurt,” Rusty Cage” and “Solitary Man.”
He also played several I’d never heard before like “One Piece At a Time” about a Detroit auto plant worker who steals one piece of a Cadillac at a time.
Pittet had a magnificent baritone like Cash and had his moves down and quite a few people from the good sized crowd trying to two step.