Mr. Ward said that limited financial, promotional and time constraints prevent the Festival from continuing.

“I have had a great time producing this event,” Ward said. “I want to thank the performers, volunteers and sponsors who helped make the Festival a reality for the last three years.”

The Festival was a colorful event for this small Mississippi city and made international and national news for symbolically “pardoning” the Man In Black for his 1965 arrest in Starkville. Cash had performed a concert at Mississippi State University the evening of May 10, 1965. The incident occurred at a time in Cash’s life when he was battling drug and alcohol addiction.

Johnny later wrote a song, “Starkville City Jail” about his version of events that night, saying he was arrested for picking flowers while walking downtown. Police said that he was arrested for public drunkeness, and released the next morning.

To many fans, Cash’s life of periodic bouts with drug abuse and ultimately overcoming them embodies the idea of redemption.

Endorsed by the Cash Estate, the Festival attracted audiences from not only the United States but across the world. The long list of performers and honorees included Rosanne Cash, Marty Stuart, Carlene Carter, Billy Joe Shaver, Justin Townes Earle, Kathy Cash Tittle, Joanne Cash and former Cash band musician Marshall Grant.

Check out this video by David Cardwell from the 2009 Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival in Starkville, Mississippi. Michael Patrick of the Ring of Fire Band and friends perform the song that made the Starkville City Jail Famous. Inside, festival director Robbie Ward tells the story of Johnny Cash’s visit to Starkville on May 11, 1965. Sheriff Dolph Bryan escorts Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman into the “Johnny Cash Suite.”

Starkville, Miss., – Standing inside the Starkville City Jail, in October, visitors to the Southern United States city stood inside a small cell on a Saturday morning and wondered what it might feel like confined against their will in such a small space.

A few visitors inside the jail kicked the cell for fun.

When Johnny Cash kicked the steel door inside the cell known as the ‘drunk tank’ in 1965, he didn’t see much humor about his situation at the time. Local authorities arrested him for public drunkenness, didn’t take his name and left him in the jail for the night. He kicked the steel door so hard he broke one of his toes. Cash wrote the song Starkville City Jail about the experience and told his side of the story, saying he was arrested for picking flowers.

For the third year, Starkville hosted one of the world’s best celebrations of Cash’s life – the ‘Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival.’ Along with fans from Germany, France, England and throughout the United States, members of Cash’s family visited the small town of about 26,000 people to celebrate the Man in Black’s spirit of rebellion and redemption.

Rosanne Cash has said events associated with Starkville embody her father’s life – goodnatured fun, a few mistakes, a lot of music, redemption.

Of the seven times Cash was arrested, he wrote a song about one of those experiences – Starkville.

After a night of partying in 1965 after performing the concert at Mississippi State University, Cash wandered through the small Southern U.S. city to see what he might find. He found a few parties at the university and another at a private residence nearby. After a few locals dropped him off at the University Motel, they thought he planned to sleep a few hours before leaving the city to perform another concert the next evening. In the same motel, Luther Perkins and June Carter, not yet his wife, slept in their own rooms. Marshall Grant decided to drive to Memphis after the show to spend the night with his wife, Etta.

Restless and not ready for sleep, Cash went for a late-night stroll to buy a pack of cigarettes. It’s too bad he didn’t know the local convenience stores were closed for the night. He stopped at a private residence along the way when he noticed the yard covered with flowers. Someone called the local authorities, who later arrested him, not believing he was who he claimed to be.

A gaunt, thin man at the time, Cash found himself in the middle of his amphetamine addiction during his Starkville visit. Local police thought he was a vagrant.

“Come over here,” one of the officers yelled at Cash.

“Hold on a second. I’m Johnny Cash,” Johnny yelled back.

“Yeah. And I’m Dwight D. Eisenhower,” the officer said. “Get the hell over here. You’re going to jail.”

And so he did… And so he wrote about the experience in his song.

I was whistlin’, pickin’ flowers, swayin’ in the southern breeze.
I found myself surrounded; one policeman said: “That’s him.
Come along, wild flower child. Don’t you know that it’s two a.m.”
They’re bound to get you.
‘Cause they got a curfew.
And you go to the Starkville City Jail.

When Cash performed the song to the prisoners at San Quentin State Prison in 1969, the song was his way of showing the inmates that he might not have served any time in a penitentiary, but he could understand how they felt. The song is of the same spirit of many of his other humorous songs, such as Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog and A Boy Named Sue.

However, more than 40 years after the arrest and four years after Cash died, a preacher, a bar owner, and a few other Cash fans in the city thought it might be a good idea to convince the city to ‘pardon’ Cash. After all, his life represents the idea of redemption to fans throughout the world, and his offense was ‘pickin’ flowers,’ not murder.

Lou Robin, Johnny Cash’s manger from 1973-2003 wrote a letter to the city about the planned celebration endorsing the event.

“I’m sure that Johnny would have been the first visitor in town… had he been able,” Robin wrote. “Here’s looking forward to what we hope will become a yearly event.”

During the first two years, city and county leaders symbolically issued ‘pardons’ to Cash’s friends and family who attended the festival. Visitors at the festival those years included Marty Stuart, Billy Joe Shaver, Marshall Grant, Rosanne Cash, Joanne Cash, Kathy Cash Tittle and Jimmy Tittle.

But after two years of pardoning Cash, it was time for something different. Carlene Carter and Justin Townes Earle performed at the festival this year, along with Jimmy Tittle and many other musicians. Everyone involved in the festival knows that forgiveness, such that the pardon represented, is a two-way street, so Carlene and Kathy stood on the festival stage and ‘pardoned’ Starkville, each giving the city’s mayor a flower.

The annual festival weekend includes public talks about Cash, jail tours, musical performances throughout the city and ends on Sunday with a ‘redemption’ church service. John Francis, a musician living in Nashville whose music is produced by John Carter Cash, performed at the festival, including at the Sunday gospel service.

Standing in a parking lot near the police department talking about the festival, Francis said he would return to Starkville.

“This is big,” he said. “This is about redemption.”

Check out The Dispatch for a wrap up of some of the events. We will post some more photos shortly, but here are a few shots of how things wrapped up on Saturday night.

Thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed all of the amazing performances throughout the weekend!

Oktibbeha County Sheriff Dolph Bryan and Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman stand in front of the “drunk tank” where Johnny Cash spent time in 1965. Cash wrote a song, titled “Starkville City Jail,” about the experience. Cash broke one of his big toes kicking the steel door. While the local authorities claimed Cash was arrested for “public drunkenness,” he said he was arrested for “pickin’ flowers.” This weekend, the city will celebrate the third annual Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival.

The first Singer-Songwriter panel will occur at 1 p.m. Saturday [October 17] upstairs in Lucky’s Lounge at Rick’s Café Americain. Award –winning singer-songwriters Jimmy Tittle (a Flower Pickin’ favorite) and John Francis (a protégé of John Carter Cash) will talk about the art of songwriting and demonstrate the same. Time allowing, they will also take questions from attendees. Learn how to structure a bridge, what makes for a successful refrain, and whether or not your lyrics should rhyme. This panel is open to all ticket-holders, but we especially encourage aspiring performers and songwriters to attend.

About Jimmy Tittle:

Jimmy Tittle

A part of the music industry for much of his life, at 18-years-old Tittle was a member of Merle Haggard’s touring band, The Strangers. He toured and performed with Merle for five years, playing bass guitar, which earned him six Super Picker awards, along with The Academy of Country Music’s Touring Band of the Year award four consecutive years.. Then he was selected to play bass in The Great Eighty Eights/The Johnny Cash Show Band, his future father-in-law’s backing band. He toured with this band between 1982-6 and then again from 1987-1989. He produced his first solo album Fade to Black for the Dixie Frog label in 1989.

Bug Music in Nashville signed Jimmy in 1989 to an exclusive songwriter’s agreement and soon had his songs recorded by artists such as Jann Browne, Johnny Cash, Evangeline, Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash. “On the Surface” was co-written by Jimmy and Rosanne which she recorded on her critically acclaimed album, “Interiors”. Jimmy has also co-written songs with Marty Stuart, John Hiatt, John Stewart, LeRoy Preston, Dave Alvin, Cindy Bullens and Rodney Crowell.

Dixiefrog Records in Paris, France contacted Jimmy and he signed a recording contract which introduced him to the European market with his albums “Jimmy Tittle” (1990) and “Fade to Black” (1991). Sony Music France released his third CD titled “Real Life” as well as a compilation of all previous works titled “Room Full of Money, Heart Full of Pain”. Tittle’s current album All the Pretty Rubble is available on iTunes.

About John Francis:

John Francis

John Francis was raised in a Pennsylvania farming town. From a young age he showed musical gifts for gospel and folk both at church and at home around the family piano. Loving both his father’s Elvis 45s and his mother’s Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash records, this son of ministers and musicians began his career in that little country church performing with his parents. By 12 he was writing and recording his own material. In October 2005, he recorded and independently released the critically acclaimed “Strong Wine & Spirits” which led to features on ABC News and an appearance on “World Café Live.” In 2006, he was honored by ASCAP as the Sammy Cahn Lyricist of the Year. (previous winners have included John Mayer, Josh Ritter and Lori Mckenna).

In 2007, John Francis chose to record his second album with 5-time Grammy winning producer John Carter Cash at the Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, TN, the same locale where John and June recorded many of their masterpieces. John Carter Cash has also produced for the likes of Loretta Lynn, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, Emmy Lou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Roseanne Cash. He was also associate producer to Rick Rubin on his father’s American Recordings series.

The album Cash produced, The Better Angels, spans the landscape of the human heart and the hear of America. Borrowing his title from Lincoln’s inaugural address, John Francis plumbs American soil to tell tales of lovers and the lovesick, rebels and wanderers, saints and drunkards, and the beautiful and the broken.

Advance tickets are available for just $12.

The ticket are good for the entire line up of live music on Saturday Oct. 17th, including the Songwriters’ Showcase in Lucky’s Lounge and headliners Carlene Carter and Justin Townes Earle.

ALL AGES are welcome. Wristbands will be available so you can come an go throughout the day. Get your tickets early at the following locations:

City Bagel – 511 University Drive
Grumpy’s – 105 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr
Rick’s Café – 319B Highway 182 E

Thanks to videographer David Cardwell for putting this piece together with some of the great footage from the 2008 Festival featuring Rosanne Cash, Jimmy Tittle, Billy Joe Shaver, Ring of Fire, Nash Street, and many more. Maybe you can even find yourself in the crowd!

Barry Marcus will perform original songs in a concert for children at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17th at the Starkville Public Library. Kids and parents are invited to come sing along. Trust me, if you are in the room when Barry Marcus is performing, you will sing along!

Admission is free.

Michael Carmigiano, 34, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and resident of Gilbert, Ariz., designed the poster for the 2009 Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival. He is creative director at Blufish Design Studio in Tempe, Ariz., and is married with a boy and a girl.

While he doesn’t own any Johnny Cash Albums, he is a fan of the Man in Black.

“It’s really cool that his songs are so easy to sing along with,” Carmigiano said.
He has watched the Cash biopic, “Walk the Line,” at least five times.

Carter and Earle, both blessed with singing and performing abilities and musical family legacies, will headline the Mississippi festival with a history steeped in myth, music, lies, truth, redemption, laughter and an appreciation for quality entertainment. Carter said in a recent interview she feels honored to perform at the festival in a city where if she doesn't "walk the line" she just might find herself in the wrong part of the "Starkville City Jail."

Johnny Cash was arrested in Starkville in 1965 after performing a concert at Mississippi State University and a long night of carousing at parties on the campus and in the city. While authorities arresting Cash accused him of public drunkenness while on private property, he explained the situation by saying he was simply "pickin' flowers." Of the seven places where Cash was arrested, he only wrote a song about the Starkville experience in the piece titled "Starkville City Jail."

Carter, daughter to Cash's longtime wife and companion June Carter Cash, said she expects no trouble with the law during her time in Starkville but said she has one point to make clear to the community.

"There should never be a law against picking flowers," said the Grammy nominated singer.

Breaking with the festival tradition of Starkville and Oktibbeha County officials issuing symbolic "pardons" to Cash's family and friends on his behalf, this year Cash's family, friends and fans will issue their own symbolic pardon to the community. Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman, an attorney by profession, said he'll gladly accept the symbolic pardon on behalf of the city as part of the three-day festival.

"We've pardoned them twice already," said Wiseman, elected earlier this year. "It's time for Starkville to get a taste of forgiveness related to our city's colorful past."

Forgiveness, redemption, music all runs through the veins of the festival's other co-headliner—Justin Townes Earle, son of country and folk singer Steve Earle. Johnny Cash's friendship with Steve Earle is well documented, particularly how Earle appreciated Cash's loyalty when he served time in prison related to illegal drugs. Cash himself suffered much of his life from an amphetamine addiction and spoke to a variety of groups, from Billy Graham "Crusades" to inmates in prisons, about the perils of worldly temptations.

Justin Townes Earle, named after legendary musician Townes Van Zant, has experienced his own struggles with addiction, now living clean for five years. Having released his second album with widespread critical success, Townes Earle will perform an acoustic set at the Flower Pickin' Festival after having returned from a tour in Australia.

Carlene Carter's musical career dates to 1978 and has included traditional country and top 40 genres, although she continues to resist limiting her singing and songwriting to those styles of music.

Along with Earle and Carter, a full lineup of other performers and schedule of the three-day music festival will soon be released. For more information about the festival that has been written about by The New York Times, BBC, National Public Radio and PASTE magazine and dozens of news organizations, visit its Web site at pardonjohnnycash.com and follow it on twitter at twitter.com/flowerpickin.

Ward spearheaded the creation of the Flower Pickin' Festival in 2007, serves as its executive director and has a day job at the Office of University Relations at Mississippi State University.

These are the lyrics to “Starkville City Jail” in the handwriting of Rosanne Cash, transcribed early in the day at the Hotel Chester on Main Street in Starkville. Even with this visual aid, she missed a couple of lines while performing her father’s song at the climax of 2008’s Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival, but she sure had the spirit of the song down!

Well, it is almost time to sing the song once again, so take the time to learn the words. It just might help keep you from getting thrown into the “Starkville City Jail.”

flowerpickin

Artwork should include the following:

• A reference to Johnny Cash and Starkville, Mississippi
• Festival dates: October 16-18, 2009
• Pardonjohnnycash.com

The artist of the winning design will receive $300 and three posters signed by the event’s headliners. All submissions become property of the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival. Multiple submissions are allowed.

Submission requirements:

• Submit a hard copy of artwork sized proportional 16” x 20”. Artwork should be full-color and in any medium.
• Submit a PDF of the artwork on a CD marked with the applicant’s name.
• Include contact information including an e-mail address, mailing address and phone number.
• Entry fee: Student fee: $5 per entry (must include a photocopy of current student ID to be accepted). Professional fee: $20 per entry.

You can view previous winning entries at the festival shop located at pardonjohnnycash.com.

Submission packet contents should be properly packaged and shipped to:
Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival
Poster Competition
PO Box 6284
Mississippi State, MS 39762

For more information, contact Robbie Ward at pardonjohnnycash@gmail.com.

When Robbie Ward, executive director for the festival, interviewed “Smokey” about having a pair of Johnny Cash’s shoes, the longtime Starkville resident said he loved Cash and his music. He then played a record of Cash singing “Folsom Prison Blues. ”

Click on the article below to read the story.

Festival photographer and www.starkvilleeats.com producer Troy DeRego photographed the festival in 2007 and 2008. Click the following link to revisit our experiences at downtown Starkville and Mississippi State University’s campus:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/troyderego/collections/72157602944241843/

New York Times columnist Dan Barry and photojournalist Angel Franco visited Starkville for the 2008 festival and produced a thorough account of the weekend’s events and history behind everything.

Read Dan’s story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/us/20land.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=robbie%20ward%20&st=cse

View Angel’s photos here:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/20/us/20081020LAND_index.html