Bastard Sons Of Johnny Cash Rally Support For Mean Eyed Cat

Inspired by the Johnny Cash song of the same name, Austin’s one-of-a-kind Mean Eyed Cat bar is facing a dilemma as it currently operates. The property that the bar occupies is zoned as a retail space and thus is required to earn 51 percent of its revenue from food sales–an almost unattainable goal for a building without a kitchen. Owner Chris Marsh has taken the issue to the city council to ask that the property be rezoned. The council is set to vote on June 21.

To rally support for the rezoning, Mean Eyed Cat held a concert on Saturday night featuring Twangero, The Gunhands, and The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash. I’ve been wanting to see what Mean Eyed Cat was all about for a while and found the concert a perfect opportunity to scope out the venue and check out a couple of acts I’ve never seen live.

My girlfriend and I arrived a few minutes before Twangero introduced Austin mayor Will Wynn to the stage to talk about the rezoning. Sporting a t-shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, he compared Austin’s live music to other major cities’ pro sports teams and voiced his support of the Mean Eyed Cat and local business, while right down the street the Keep Austin Weird Festival was taking place. Afterwards, Twangero wrapped up their set and Johnny Cash’s American V played over the loud speakers while they disassembled to let The Gunhands take the small, outdoor stage. I’m new to these guys, but quickly realized they liked their country music with a hefty dose of hard-edged rock–perfectly illustrated by their fusion of Bill Monroe and Hank III on one number. The three front guys took turns on vocals with noticeably distinctive styles and seemingly had something for everyone. My girlfriend preferred Richard Benavidez’s rock sound, while I preferred Nathan Mayes’s twangy crooning on superb covers of Steve Earle’s “Angel Is the Devil” and Billy Joe Shaver’s “Honky Tonk Heroes”. Their original material wasn’t bad either.

During the concert two trains rolled by on the tracks that lie less than 50 yards from the stage, each time blowin’ the hollow horn as they passed. It added another dimension to the lyrics “I hear that train a comin’ / it’s rolling round the bend” from Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”, a song covered by both The Gunhands and the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash during the night.

The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash slapped the exclamation point on an already stellar evening. Their Cash covers lacked the punch to send them over the top, but Mark Stuart does a mean Haggard impersonation and stirred the crowd with a hair raising version of “Good Hearted Woman”. As if that wasn’t enough they swapped singers at the microphone to lay a Freddy Fender classic on the audience and absolutely played the heck out of some of their originals: “1970 Monte Carlo”, “Burn Down”, “King of the World”, “Radio Girl”, “Austin Night”, “Lonely Tonight”, “The Road to Bakersfield”, and “California Sky” to name a few. These guys write some killer lyircs that actually make you feel the emotions in their stories. More than once I found myself thinking that I’d been in the same situations they were singing; they’re easy to relate to. I’m a fan.

If you’d like to support the Mean Eyed Cat, visit staymean.com