The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 31

THE TENNESSEAN Wdnwdry, May 141997 3D MUSIC CITY ENTERTAINMENT TODAY'S HOT SPOTS The harmony of Barry and Holly Tashian Entertainment Calendar A Getting there The Tashians will perform tunes from Harmony during a CD release party at 9:30 p.m. today at the Bluebird Cafe, 4104 Hillsboro Pike. Joining the duo: Roy Husky, Dan Dugmore and Mike Compton. Admission is $7. Information: 4 1 111 i Third Ave.

S. Cover is $4. Information: 259-9891. VARIOUS Razzy Bailey plays at 9 p.m. today at Maggie Magee's, 419 Broadway.

Information: 256-9400. At 1 2th and Porter tonight Sweet Briar showcase, 6 p.m.; the Clarks open for the roots-rock, Byrds-influenced band Crowd of One, 9 p.m. The venue is located at 1 14 12th Ave. N. Information: 254-7236.

Duo celebrates fifth CD release Bv ROBERT K.OERMANN Barry and Holly Tashian are Music Row's "Mom and Pop store." During this decade the folk-country duo has marketed an instructional songbook, four new record albums, two reissue CDs, posters and a nonfiction book. "We do all our own business," says Holly cheerfully, "booking, management, songwriting. It's a real mom-and-pop operation." A newsletter keeps fans up to date with the active Tashians. Just keeping tabs on their credentials is practically a full-time job they have worked with the Beatles, the Ronettes, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Garrison Keillor, the Grand Ole Opry and Suzy Bogguss, to name just a few. They celebrate the release of Harmony, their fifth duet CD, tonight at The Bluebird Cafe.

An earlier effort, 1994's Straw Into Gold, won the Country Album of the Year award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD). There have been many other highlights. Their relationship is one. Barry and Holly have known each other since they were in high school in the '60s in Westport, Conn. She was a classical musician.

He had a teen-age band called the Remains. Signed to Epic Records, Barry and his mates were rockers who wanted a "funkier" sound than they could get in the label's New York studios. "They said, 'Go to Barry relates. "It was 1965; and who did they assign us to? Billy Sherrill." The notably conservative guru behind the hits of Tammy Wynette wasnt keen on their hippie style, Barry reports, but he did a fine job. A bonus was that Barry got to watch while Sherrill produced the Staple Singers.

A few months later, the Remains were signed to open the 1966 U.S. tour by the Beatles. In addition, they were to back Nashville soul star Bobby Hebb Sunny) and the legendary Ronettes (Be My Baby), who were also on the bill. York in 1979. "Ricky Skaggs was leaving her band and she needed a replacement," Holly remembers.

"That was the end of the Outskirts." Barry went on the road with Harris' Hot Band and recorded 10 albums with the country-rock queen. Holly stayed behind with sons Daniel and Carl. When Harris moved to Nashville in 1983, so did they. The couple signed with the publishing company co-owned by Garth Brooks producer Allen Reynolds. Their songs have been recorded by the Nashville Bluegrass Band and Ty England, among others.

Nanci Griffith, Iris Dement, Suzy Bogguss and Charlie Louvin used Barry as a guitarist on their records. The Hot Band ended in 1989. This freed Barry and Holly Tashian to become full-time partners. "I had been a sideman for 10 years and wanted to make my own name," says Barry. "It was a leap of faith, starting at Ground Zero," Holly recalls.

"Emmylou got us on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion show and wrote the liner notes to our first album. But it was still a real struggle." Trust in Me (1989), live in Holland (1991), Ready for Love (1993) and Straw Into Gold (1994) got rave reviews. So did son Daniel Tashian with a debut folk-rock CD in 1996. Now signed with Rounder Records, Barry and Holly Tashian conduct writing and singing workshops wherever they perform. They are especially popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as on U.S.

public Robert K. Oermann is a free-lance music feature writer for The Tennessean and appears Thursdays on TNN's Today's Country. Tara; the respective families after the divorce; the girls' own families; and others whose lives entwined with the Cash family. "I had a hundred more pictures that I wouldVe liked to use," Cash said. But keeping everyone happy with the 284 she did use was quite a task.

"I kind of knew which ones my dad liked and which ones he didnt, and my mother had sent certain pictures for me to use, but then I'd have to call my sisters and see if they cared," she said. "A couple of times the answer was, 'No, do not use Johnny Cash wrote a poignant introduction to The Cash Family Scrapbook that openly reveals his pain about leaving his children. "I was gone most of the time during her childhood years and when she was nine, her mother and I were Regina Regina OUR PICKS Yep, that's Rodney Crowell doing the roots rock thing with his new band, the Cicadas. The band, which just released its self-titled debut album on Warner Brothers, plays at 8 p.m. today at the ExitIn, 2208 Elliston Place.

The album includes the songs Nothing, a sort of twangy Mop Top-era Beatles thing, and the ballad Wish You Were Her, written by U2's Bono and T. Bone Burnett. Also performing will be Allsa Carroll. Admission is $1 2 for the 1 8-and-oldershow. Information: 321-4400.

Texas meets North Carolina in the country music of Regina Regina. Hear the duo, Regina Nicks and Regina Leigh, perform at 8 and 10:30 p.m. today at Caffe Milano, 176 Third Ave. N. Leigh, the blonde North Carolina native, spent three years on tour as a backup singer for Reba McEntire.

Nicks, the brunette from Lufkin, Texas, worked for almost six years as a personal assistant to McEntire. The duo's self-titled debut album, on Giant Records, includes the singles More Than I Wanted to Know and Right Plan, Wrong Man. Admission is $12. For reservations, call 25WJ073. PROGRESSIVE Ceill Rain plays at 8:30 p.m.

today at Ace of Clubs, 1 14 Second Ave. S. Cover is $5. Information: 254-2237. BLUES JAZZ The Wooten Brothers with special guests play at 9 p.m.

today at the 3rd Undsley Bar and Grill, 818 divorced," he wrote. "And to Cindy and me both, it was a terrible truth: 'Daddy stopped coming He closes the introduction with a tribute to her efforts: "She tells a human story with her writing and her pictures, a story of love that has Great a Cindy Cash gives an inside look at her famous family The Tashians Barry Tashian kept a diary of his life on the road with the Fab Four. It is the basis for his 1996 book Ticket to Ride. Said rock critic Dave Marsh, "In its simple honesty, this book captures the flavor of the time as well as any document we have." When pop stardom faded, Barry went to LA and fell under the influence of Gram Parsons. Helping to form the Flying Burrito Brothers with Parsons awakened his interest in country music.

Meanwhile, Holly was attending bluegrass festivals. When Barry moved back to Connecticut in 1969, both were Cindy Cash and professional makeup artist in Nashville, also had a lot of poetry that she had written "but I realized it all revolved around my family." Beginning in 1985, she would sort through photos and poems and other memorabilia with the idea of a book, and then she'd put it away again. When she finally made the decision Pv" nr --v 'szA country "nuts" who had virtually no one else to talk to but each other. "We started playing together in 1970 or so," Holly recalls. "In 1972 1 formed a country band called the Outskirts." "It was an all-girl band," Barry explains, "except they couldn't find a girl drummer.

So I played drums." He soon graduated to singing and playing guitar. The act became an East Coast attraction, yet Barry returned to LA to perform on Parsons' landmark G.P. album of 1973. Emmylou Harris spotted the Tashians in New Getting there Cindy Cash, daughter of country music legend Johnny Cash, win sign her new book, The Cash Family Scrapbook, 2-4 p.m. tomorrow at WakJenbooks, Main Street, Hendersonville.

to publish it, there was a lot of communication with family members. "I didnt want to invade anyone's privacy, but I wanted to tell the whole story of the family, beginning with the day my parents were married (Aug. 7, 1954) and coming up to the present day," she said. To tell that story, Cash included photos that show the lives of her parents when they were together with the four girls, Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy and Bv LUDA OUGLEY Staff Writer Cindy Cash has exposed her family, and they love it "My dad said he thinks it's the finest book of its kind he's ever seen," Cash said ofThe Cash Family Scrapbook (Crown, $18). What she has done is to show a side of her famous family "dad" is country legend Johnny Cash that fans have never seea "All my life I had been asked all the typical questions about what it was like growing up in the family," said Cash, the third of four daughters of Johnny Cash and his first wife, the former Vivian Liberto.

"I had some great photographs that were so incredibly unique that I thought the public would enjoy them," she said. Cash, a songwriter Kim Carnes THIS DAY May 14, 1881 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit Bene Davis Eyes, Kim Carries. Bette Davis responds by sending roses to Carries when the song wins a Grammy. The song is first recorded by Jackie DeShannon.

brought her through her hard times. As this scrapbook of vignettes of her life makes clear, the love and companionship of her family, grounded in great faith in God, makes her feel that eventually everybody, including Daddy, is coming home." I Celebrate the extraordinary career of a composer Hal David Dionne Warwick Richard Carpenter Carol Bayer Sager HerbAlpert Noel Gallagher of Oasis Performances it Tonight at 8:00 Public Television Channel Eight HEALING CONNECTIONS, LLC The Weigh To Lose Physician directed weight loss clinic programs include Phen-fen Redux medications on site evening Sats available. Athens, AL Toll free 1-888-77 1 -0907. Easy access from 1-65. 90 min.

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