Newspaper report from www.papendrecht.net
Monday January 28, 2013
PAPENDRECHT - This Sunday on February 3 there is a special Johnny Cash church service in the Morgenster church on Muilwijstraat (street). This has already reached the national press. The well-known psychologist from Papendrecht, Matthijs Goedegebuure, shall play a few live numbers translated into Dutch. He has been a Johnny Cash fan since his childhood. He sings and plays songs daily on his guitar.
Matthijs looks ahead: “This Sunday I get to play a few Johnny Cash songs in a special church service around the gospel and Johnny Cash’s faith. What an honor. It is a fantastic initiative from pastor Piet van Die in the Morgenster church. A special honor, but at the same time a dubious honor. Johnny Cash was nominated numerous times, but cannot be copied by anyone. Cash sang 50 years about what he believed, what he felt, and what he was. Even at the age of forty he sang with his famous, strong, and mature voice of a forty year old. At seventy years old he sang with a broken, fragile voice of an old aged senior. He continued to sing the same songs since his childhood. He completely surrendered everything he had at that moment and built up as a professional artist with others and a fitting musical background. If you could take something away from Johnny Cash it would be: give what you have got to give. Vocalize what you believe and continue to do what you have been doing your whole life.
That’s what I am going to do on Sunday. I am not going to mimic Johnny Cash. I am not going to force myself to imitate his voice, look, or guitar playing. I am going to do with what I have. That’s without a doubt the easiest thing to do. From the time that I was fourteen years old I have daily been singing Johnny Cash numbers. I have no idea how Johnny Cash exactly sings some of the songs. Through singing them a thousand times they have become my own. Just like Johnny Cash did with the songs of Kris Kristofferson and others. The only thing that you can give to others is what God has given you? Of course I will put on a black jacket out of respect for the man in black, a black jacket from my neighbor. And of course I am not going to sing my highest notes. I am going to give what I have got. And I dare to say that it most likely will come close to the style and drive of Johnny Cash.
When I discovered the music of Johnny Cash, as a boy at the age of fourteen, Cash was at the deepest point of his career. He was completely lost in his tracks. His new records just did not do it anymore. His contracts were not renewed and Cash was placed in the junk bin of Nashville. The radio stations just did not play his songs anymore. He helplessly tried to get his original sound back from the 50’s. Back to the roots. Even that did not work. When I was eighteen years old I went to the last Johnny Cash concert in Holland. A sad proof of this deep point was that there were only a few hundred people in a rented gym. Close to the end of the concert I walked to the exit where the musicians left the gym, without security, just on his own. The man in black walked by the door while the band played on the stage. He nodded politely and said: “Hello, thank you.” I nodded back and said: “Thank you.” And then he walked out the door.
No one could imagine that Johnny Cash’s success was yet to come. That producers, new musicians, younger people from a new generation were developing themselves to join Cash in the last years of his life. The American Recordings, the last one came out in 2010, have pulled Cash out of the dust. Nashville came too short, but Johnny came to MTV as an old, gray man on the iPods of teenagers and people in their 20’s. Through them his video clips received the highest awards. “The old wheel is going to roll again and it will even up the score,” sang Cash during the difficult times in the 80’s. Just like he sang it, it happened. Inspiring.
For my children Sunday will be a strange, yet at the same time a familiar moment. Daddy sings just like he does at home for the thousandth time the same songs. Only add the acoustics in the church, add a bunch of people who listen along to the songs they fall asleep to. I hope they stay awake during the service,” concludes Matthijs Goedegebuure.
Matthijs looks ahead: “This Sunday I get to play a few Johnny Cash songs in a special church service around the gospel and Johnny Cash’s faith. What an honor. It is a fantastic initiative from pastor Piet van Die in the Morgenster church. A special honor, but at the same time a dubious honor. Johnny Cash was nominated numerous times, but cannot be copied by anyone. Cash sang 50 years about what he believed, what he felt, and what he was. Even at the age of forty he sang with his famous, strong, and mature voice of a forty year old. At seventy years old he sang with a broken, fragile voice of an old aged senior. He continued to sing the same songs since his childhood. He completely surrendered everything he had at that moment and built up as a professional artist with others and a fitting musical background. If you could take something away from Johnny Cash it would be: give what you have got to give. Vocalize what you believe and continue to do what you have been doing your whole life.
That’s what I am going to do on Sunday. I am not going to mimic Johnny Cash. I am not going to force myself to imitate his voice, look, or guitar playing. I am going to do with what I have. That’s without a doubt the easiest thing to do. From the time that I was fourteen years old I have daily been singing Johnny Cash numbers. I have no idea how Johnny Cash exactly sings some of the songs. Through singing them a thousand times they have become my own. Just like Johnny Cash did with the songs of Kris Kristofferson and others. The only thing that you can give to others is what God has given you? Of course I will put on a black jacket out of respect for the man in black, a black jacket from my neighbor. And of course I am not going to sing my highest notes. I am going to give what I have got. And I dare to say that it most likely will come close to the style and drive of Johnny Cash.
When I discovered the music of Johnny Cash, as a boy at the age of fourteen, Cash was at the deepest point of his career. He was completely lost in his tracks. His new records just did not do it anymore. His contracts were not renewed and Cash was placed in the junk bin of Nashville. The radio stations just did not play his songs anymore. He helplessly tried to get his original sound back from the 50’s. Back to the roots. Even that did not work. When I was eighteen years old I went to the last Johnny Cash concert in Holland. A sad proof of this deep point was that there were only a few hundred people in a rented gym. Close to the end of the concert I walked to the exit where the musicians left the gym, without security, just on his own. The man in black walked by the door while the band played on the stage. He nodded politely and said: “Hello, thank you.” I nodded back and said: “Thank you.” And then he walked out the door.
No one could imagine that Johnny Cash’s success was yet to come. That producers, new musicians, younger people from a new generation were developing themselves to join Cash in the last years of his life. The American Recordings, the last one came out in 2010, have pulled Cash out of the dust. Nashville came too short, but Johnny came to MTV as an old, gray man on the iPods of teenagers and people in their 20’s. Through them his video clips received the highest awards. “The old wheel is going to roll again and it will even up the score,” sang Cash during the difficult times in the 80’s. Just like he sang it, it happened. Inspiring.
For my children Sunday will be a strange, yet at the same time a familiar moment. Daddy sings just like he does at home for the thousandth time the same songs. Only add the acoustics in the church, add a bunch of people who listen along to the songs they fall asleep to. I hope they stay awake during the service,” concludes Matthijs Goedegebuure.