My friend Jason Scorich wrote a history column for the Hometown Focus about the time Johnny Cash played the Iron Range (Eveleth, specifically) in 1958. This is worth a read.
Scorich juxtaposes Cash with the Range’s own Bob Dylan. Then Robert Zimmerman, Dylan lived in Hibbing at the time of the Cash show and was, at that time, dismissive of the hard driving country gospel singer from Tennessee. The two later became colleagues and collaborators.
I would argue, as much as I love Bob Dylan, that Johnny Cash’s music more deftly describes the pathos of the Iron Range: rhythmic, rough around the edges, traditional and yet warped into something rebellious. Yes, the Iron Range was then and may yet remain Johnny Cash country.
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