Performing Arts Center Celebrates Johnny Cash

The will present a special 80^th birthday celebration honoring the music, melodies and memory of the late Johnny Cash, June 16 at 7:30 p.m.

The Birthday Celebration will feature “Walking the Line,” also named for Cash’s signature love song, a touring Johnny Cash tribute production that is no stranger to the main stage in Dix Hills. The show will include a complete performance spanning Cash’s entire career, which lasted a full half century. It will include many of his most popular songs from “Folsom Prison Blues” to “Boy Named Sue” to his later, but lesser-known works, demonstrating both the progression of his music, and the arc of his life.

“Walking the Line” is considered to be among the most authentic sounding and looking performance groups of Johnny Cash’s music, playing the most-loved hits and some rare gems from his illustrious career, while re-creating the look, feel and excitement of the artist’s live performances.

The band takes audiences on a musical journey that has become the Johnny Cash legacy, performing material from every decade of Cash’s career. This is not a band concert, but a performance on par with a full Broadway production. Vintage costumes and period-accurate guitars drums and basses add to the overall experience and technical authenticity.

Playing the part of Johnny Cash is performer Tom Cavanagh, a local legend with credits that include performing with Lita Ford, the Backseat Devils and Broadway’s Rock of Ages to name a few. Through years of channeling Cash’s music and spirit in performance he has reached what critics have called a level of being Cash.

Performing with Cavanagh is a seven-piece band featuring three women faithfully playing the roles of the three “Carter Sisters,” June Carter-Cash, Helen Carter and Anita Carter, providing the harmonies, and three of Long Island’s top musicians on guitar, drums and bass. Tickets are $35 and $30.