Girls happy to walk their own line

Suzi Fray, founder of the only all-girl Johnny Cash band on the planet, knew her idea was a winner even before their original music about the great man made his daughter cry.

The band last year played seven songs from their repertoire to open the fourth annual Johnny Cash tribute festival in Ventura, California. Their set included the debut of an original Fray-penned tune called Cinnamon Hill, inspired from a Johnny Cash biography about his Jamaican home.

The song brought tears to the eyes of his daughter Cindy Cash, who on hearing the lyrics said she "was mesmerised. I cried as I heard my dad saying the same words that Suzi sang".

Fray, speaking down the line from her hometown of Nelson, said lady luck had been smiling wide for the unique three-piece, which may "loosely" be described as a Cash tribute band, since soon after the former copywriter founded the band several years ago to escape her day job.

"I'm a songwriter as well and I'd been trying for 20 years to work on the side as a musician and that's difficult to do. The idea for the Johnnys just came to me out of the blue and I thought, 'bloody hell, that could work'."

Fray soon found her two perfect Cash compatriots in bass player and vocalist Jo Taylor and drummer Liala Gianstefani.

"It was the first time I'd ever played covers and the project had to be something special. I'd never try to cover a female artist because you'd never be good enough," Fray said. "It had to be a special project but I honestly don't know why it had to be Johnny Cash. If I was Christian I'd say the idea was given to me - a gift from God.

"I knew about marketing and things like point of difference but none of that came into it originally. Then I learned we were unique in the world and, hell, as a point of difference that's worth millions. That opens a lot of doors."

The band last year opened the Cash festival, won an ardent fan in Cindy Cash and were featured in the LA Times and on Californian television.

This year the girls played at the Linda Topp wedding, were featured on BBC West and Southwest, were invited back to the Cash festival, and could still complete a Walk The Line tour of places Cash played in the US to mark the 10th anniversary of his death.

Fray said the band had started including original songs in their setlists and she accepts there may come a time when the players step out from behind the shadow of the man in black and perform in their own right, which "would be fantastic".

"Every time we make that next step, something else happens that affirms what we're doing ... we keep getting the nod."

Fray once played in Carterton and Pahiatua with band Queerfish but said The Johnnys were excited to be staging their debut Wairarapa performance at King Street Live in Masterton tomorrow.

Tickets cost $15 plus booking fee and are available from dashtickets.co.nz or from iSites in Masterton, Martinborough and the Carterton Info Centre.