POP MUSIC REVIEW : Johnny Cashes In on the Past at the Coach House

One day 60 years ago a child was born, and he came out garbed in black and announcing, “Hi, I’m Johnny Cash.”

If that wasn’t exactly how it happened, then it may have been the only time in his life when the country legend put in an appearance without those trademarks.

They certainly were in place, along with a number of other Cash guarantees, during his early show Friday at the Coach House. Joined, as ever, by wife, June Carter, and the Carter Family, Cash delivered a show that was predictable but only rarely pat.

As with his appearance at the Crazy Horse Steak House earlier this year, there was no hint given that Cash ever did anything after “A Boy Named Sue” in 1969. He has, in fact, continued making splendid records; his most recent one, 1991’s “The Mystery of Life,” is a fine example of his still-potent songwriting and interpretive skills. In recent years, he has covered songs by the likes of Elvis Costello and John Prine.

But Friday he and the Carters stayed comfortably in the past. Fortunately, that’s as fine a past as anyone could ask for, and Cash, with one exception, gave his old songs the respect they deserved. That exception, to get it out of the way, was his encore of “A Boy Named Sue,” which he recited so dispassionately that he could have passed for a stewardess intoning safety instructions.

Of course, most stewardesses aren’t bearish giants with booming baritone/bass voices and a belt buckle larger than some entire people. His black hair may be going gray, but Cash is still a commanding presence onstage, more than able to power his lean, soulful Sun Records hits from the ‘50s. Among the songs he sang Friday were “Ring of Fire,” “Big River,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Get Rhythm,” “I Walk the Line” and a haunting “I Still Miss Someone.”

Even his earliest songs were like concise stories with nary a word wasted, told with the poetry of common language. He could catch the cadence of a shoeshine boy’s sales pitch in “Get Rhythm” (“It only costs a dime to shine your shoes/And it does a million dollars worth of good for you”). He could just as easily inhabit a convict’s mind in “Folsom Prison Blues,” setting out a line that even the most street-hardened rapper would be hard-pressed to match for its cold brutality: “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”

Repetition hasn’t dulled Cash’s narrative abilities; his deep voice--you could practically dredge a river with the thing--made those songs and others come alive. His “Five Feet High and Rising” recounted a river flood with a light country humor. As a child on a dirt-poor Arkansas farm, Cash experienced the horror and wonder of such floods, and the ability to find comedy in them may be one of the best qualities of the American spirit his music embodies.

He and June dueted on a pair of their hits, “Jackson” and Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter,” which segued unaccountably into a comic number about a cow milker with cold hands. Cash left the stage for a time so that June and her sisters Anita and Helen and daughter Rosey could harmonize on the Carter Family standards “Wabash Cannonball” and “The Wildwood Flower.” Anita and Rosey took solo turns, as did son John Carter Cash at another point in the evening, with an original song that was as convoluted and overwrought as his father’s are artful and direct.

Cash closed out the show with the Carters on a handful of gospel numbers. Though they represent a valued part of country music history, the sisters also tend to lend a pre-fab Country Bear Jamboree quality to the show, detracting from the personality Cash exerts with the rest of the performance.

Cash was backed by an excellent, responsive band. Stand-up bassist Steve Logan and longtime Cash drummer W. S. Holland gave the songs a strong heartbeat. Guitarist Kerry Marx’s playing was inventive while never trampling tradition. The standout player, though, was pianist Earl Ball, whose lively fills and solos seemed to keep Cash on his toes.

J ohnny Cash, June Carter and the Carter Family perform tonight at 7 and 9:45 at the Strand, 1700 S. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach. (310) 316-1700.