News Article

Fourth Annual Johnny Cash Music Festival Date and Lineup Announced

JONESBORO, AR  --  Reba McEntire, Bobby Bare and Loretta Lynn will perform at this year’s Johnny Cash Music Festival, according to an announcement made today by concert producer and festival founder Bill Carter. Additionally, legendary singer and comedian Mark Lowry will host the fourth annual event. The concert is set for August 15^th and will once again take place at Arkansas State University’s Convocation Center in Jonesboro, AR.  Showtime is 7:00 pm and tickets go on sale Feb 28th.

“If we had any one of these four individuals on the bill, we would have an extremely successful event, but having all four at once is a real coup for the Johnny Cash Music Festival,” Carter said. “The reputation of the event and generosity of the people at Arkansas State and in Jonesboro continue to grow each year. This is going to be a great show.”

"I am extremely honored to be part of such a great event and worthwhile cause,” Lowry said. “Johnny Cash is a legend and this concert pays homage to that and all of the great things he stood for. I am especially pleased to be hosting an event that stars not one, not two but three Country Music Hall of Fame members.  Reba, Bobby Bare and Loretta Lynn on the same bill-- that's a lot of star power in one room."

"When I was asked to perform at the Johnny Cash Music Festival, there was absolutely no hesitation," McEntire said.  "I have always had a great deal of respect for Johnny Cash, and not just because he was one of the finest entertainers, performers and recording artists this industry has ever known.  It is also because of his compassion and generosity. The fact that some of the money raised from these concerts goes into a scholarship fund to help deserving kids further their education is something I know would make him very proud.  I'm also really happy that I will be playing on the campus of Arkansas State again-- we had a great time when I performed there years ago.  Jonesboro is a very hospitable town, and I look forward to being there again."

As in year’s past, proceeds from this year’s event will fund the restoration of the Johnny Cash Boyhood Home in Dyess, Arkansas, as well as support a scholarship fund established in the international superstar’s name.

Tickets for the Johnny Cash Music Festival will go on sale February 28th and are available at Arkansas State’s Central Box Office and online at www.tickets.astate.edu. Tickets can also be purchased by logging onto the official website of the Johnny Cash Music Festival,  www.johnnycashmusicfest.com. Call to purchase tickets toll-free at 1-888-278-3267.

Reba McEntire

One of the most successful female recording artists in history, Reba has sold more than 56 million albums worldwide and is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. She has won 15 American Music Awards; 13 ACM Awards; 9 People’s Choice Awards; 7 CMA Awards; 2 GRAMMY Awards; an ACM Career Achievement Honor; and is one of only four entertainers in history to receive the National Artistic Achievement Award from the U.S. Congress.

Reba’s reign of #1 hits spans four decades and Billboard, Country Aircheck and Mediabase recognized her as the biggest female hitmaker in Country music history. She earned her 64^th Top 10 hit and her 35^th #1 with “Turn On The Radio,” from her most recent album, ALL THE WOMEN I AM. Reba’s run of sales successes has placed her in the upper echelon of #1 albums in the Country genre. 

During her ALL THE WOMEN I AM TOUR, both Pollstar and Billboard’s Boxscore (the touring industry’s leading trade outlets) named Reba the #1 female Country touring artist, selling a combined total of over 9 million tickets.

The Oklahoma native is also an acclaimed actress with 11 movie credits to her name, including Tremors, North & The Little Rascals. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut in Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, which the New York Times hailed, "without qualification the best performance by an actress in a musical comedy this season." She has also starred in the eponymous sitcom Reba, which ran for 6 seasons on the WB Television Network/The CW, and Malibu Country on ABC. 

Bobby Bare

In October 2013, Bobby Bare was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, one of the most prestigious honors a recording artist can receive. Bare has been writing and recording hit songs for more than 50 years – it was 1962 that he recorded his first hit, “Shame On Me.” Since that first Top 20 Country Hit, he has accumulated an impressive number of Top 20 singles -- 30 at last count. His trophy shelf boasts a Grammy for his hit “Detroit City,” and there are numerous more accolades and honors vying for space.

Some of Bare’s biggest hits include “500 Miles Away From Home,” “Four Strong Winds,” “Marie Laveau,” “Drop Kick Me Jesus,”  “”Daddy What If,” “Tequila Sheila,” “Numbers,” “All American Boy,” “Margie’s At the Lincoln Park Inn,” “The Streets of Baltimore” and a duet with Rosanne Cash, “No Memories Hangin’ Round,” just to list but a few.

Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn has a wildly successful career that spans more than 50 years.  The Coal Miner’s Daughter is perhaps the title that people most associate with the artist.  It was a hit single, album title, best-selling autobiography and an Oscar winning film. Lynn released her first Top 10 hit in 1962, a song called “Success” that was later covered by Elvis Costello.  The song title accurately described what was to come for Lynn. 

From that point Lynn released a string of hits, including “Wine, Women and Song,” “Happy Birthday” and “Blue Kentucky Girl,” each a Top 10 hit. Lynn was also finding her style and voice as a songwriter with such songs as “The Pill,”  “Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “You Ain’t Woman Enough (to Take My Man),”  “You’re Lookin’ at Country” and “Your Squaw Is On the Warpath.” 

Throughout her career, Lynn recorded many award winning duets with Conway Twitty, including “After the Fire Is Gone,” “Lead Me On,” “As Soon As I Hang up the Phone” and “Feelin’s.”

In 1972 , Lynn won her second Best Female Vocalist award from the Country Music Association and became the first woman to win the CMA’s most prestigious award, Entertainer of the Year. By the time of her last major hit—”I Lie,” in 1982—Lynn had accumulated 52 Top 10 hits and 16 #1’s.

Mark Lowry

Mark Lowry is known and loved around the world as a trusted voice in the realm of gospel music and beyond. He started making music at age 11 and now, more than four decades later, his legacy is forever sealed as an innately entertaining communicator who can, at once, make audiences laugh, cry, and think.

Mark is a singer, storyteller, humorist, author and songwriter, whose lyric to “Mary Did You Know?” resulted in one of the most loved modern Christmas songs of this century.  This captivating song, which he co-wrote with Buddy Greene, has been recorded more than 400 times by artists from every genre including: Reba McEntire, Cee Lo Green, Clay Aiken, Michael English, Kenny Rogers, Wynonna Judd, The Gaither Vocal Band, and a long list of others.

Mark has spent more than 20 collective years as the baritone singer for the Grammy-award-winning Gaither Vocal Band and serves as the sidesplitting comedic sidekick for Bill Gaither through live concert tours and the best-selling Gaither Homecoming video series and television airings (now more than 150 volumes strong).

A deep thinker and student of theology with an outrageous sense of humor (for which he often credits his diagnosis with Attention Deficit Disorder), Mark’s life work includes a long list of recordings and DVDs reflecting a wide range of influences, including: Mark Lowry On Broadway, Mark Lowry Goes To Hollywood, Life Gets Loud, I Love To Tell the Story (his first all-hymns recording), Unplugged and Unplanned, Whatcha Need, and most recently, Unforgettable Classics.

In spite of the broad range of musical inspiration found in Mark’s discography, there is one element that never changes: his gift for communicating profound truths through music and storytelling that keeps audiences of all ages on the edge of their seats.  Mark maintains a full schedule of solo concerts, as well as Gaither Vocal Band tour dates and performances at Women of Faith Conferences across North America. 

Contacts