Category: News

The January 2014 issue of Arkansas Living, published by the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, features an interview with Rosanne Cash regarding her involvement in the restoration of her father’s boyhood home, her journey through the South with husband John Leventhal, and how the Dyess restoration project and their trip through the region inspired her new album. The issue also includes an article on the Sunken Lands, the region in which Dyess is located and which was the inspiration for one of the songs on her album. Click here for online access to both articles: “A Journey Home: Restoration Project Inspires Rosanne Cash to Explore her Southern Roots” and “Sunken Lands: Historic New Madrid Earthquakes Changed Delta Landscape.”

Garden & Gun magazine has a story with Rosanne Cash on the upcoming release of her new album. The story mentions Arkansas State University and the project at Dyess. There’s also an audio file of, “A Feather’s Not a Bird” from her album. To read the article, click here.

KUAR has an audio interview with Rosanne Cash when she was in Little Rock to do a benefit concert for the special music issue of Oxford American magazine. While in Arkansas, she visited the Old Statehouse Museum, which includes a Johnny Cash exhibit, and reflected on the restoration of her father’s boyhood home in Dyess. Click here to listen to the interview.

Dr. Colin Woodward’s blog, Southern Historian, includes this post about his trip to visit the birthplace of Johnny Cash in Cleveland County, Arkansas, as well as his trip to nearby Rison, where Johnny’s father, Ray Cash, was born. Click here to read the blog entry.

The life and career of Joanne Cash are the focus of a new documentary film, “Joanne Cash – I Do Believe,” that will be premiered at Arkansas State University on Wednesday, Oct. 2. “Joanne’s life is a remarkable story of faith and redemption,” said Dr. Ruth Hawkins, director of Arkansas Heritage Sites at A-State. “Everyone who sees it will take away some powerful messages.” The film features interviews with her brother Tommy Cash, as well as country superstar Larry Gatlin and Christian music artist Kevin Max. The documentary also includes a rare music video of “When He Comes,” written by and recorded with her brother Johnny. For the complete article, click here.

The Wall Street Journal has an article about the Americana Music Awards in Nashville that includes an interview with Rosanne Cash talking about her dad and his boyhood home in Dyess, as well as an interview with Americana Music Association Director Jed Hilly talking about his trip to Dyess with Rosanne after the second Johnny Cash Music Festival. Click here for the complete article.

This Blytheville Courier News article talks about efforts to furnish the interior of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home as authentically as possible.  Working with members of the Cash family, Arkansas State University has identified appropriate furnishings and set up a  a Johnny Cash Household Registry listing the items that are needed. This list provides the public with the opportunity to assist in finding or providing the needed items, and contributing to A-State’s project. The Cash Household Registry is available to view here. To view the article, click here.

 The progress of the restoration of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home is discussed in this Blytheville Courier News article, which includes photos of the restoration. To view the article, click here.

Jack Hill discusses the third annual Johnny Cash Music Festival featuring Cash’s two surviving siblings, Joanne Cash Yates and Tommy Cash, as well as work on the family’s old home in Dyess. The article also includes a conversation with Joanne Yates about the restoration of the family home. “I’m elated about how the construction on our old house has been coming along,” says Joanne Cash Yates. “I spent my first 17 years in that house, and I remember every table and bed that was there. It’s been like a job for me to act as sort of a consultant to Ruth Hawkins of Arkansas State University, who’s in charge of the Heritage Sites project, to replicate some of the furnishings from that era. “One of the most exciting things we found was the original linoleum in the kitchen, which had been covered up, under layers and layers of other floors. Ruth has been searching antique stores and so on and if she finds something that looks right, she sends photos to my phone, and I’ll answer ‘yes’ or no’ to her.” Yates also talks about memories of her brother, saying “I was 10 years old and I made him and his girlfriend take me with them to the movies,” she says, laughing. “But he had to bring me home, so I messed up that date, I remember.” The lineup for the third annual Johnny Cash Music Festival is also discussed. For the full article, click here.

Josh Anderson of The Wall Street Journal provides a series of photographs taken in Dyess. Click here to view.