Pardon Johnny Cash – Flower Pickin' Festival

Thanks to all those who attended, the many volunteers who made it happen, and all the supporters of the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival.

We made a lot of great new friends this year, saw some rowdy foot-stompin’ performances, and some spirit-raising moments of redemption. A symbolic pardon was issued by Starvkille city, county, and law enforcement officials to Rosanne Cash and Marshall Grant in honor of Johnny Cash’s “incredible contributions to humanity during his lifetime of achievements.”

The pardon expires in one year and you can bet that we will all be gathered here in Starkville to do it all over again. Until then, in the words of Billy Joe Shaver, “Have fun. Be Careful.”

(Don’t miss a beat. Join our e-mail list over there on the right sidebar!)

Owners of the University Motel, 104 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, will dedicate Room 22 at 2 p.m. on Friday, remembering the room Cash preferred to spend the night on May 10, 1965.

Come out for the dedication, which begins the Walking the Line with Johnny Cash Walking Tour. After leaving the University Motel, we’ll visit the Copeland property, where Cash picked those infamous flowers, and then visit the Starkville City Jail.

Across from the University Motel, an oversized JumboTron, will show Johnny Cash videos.

Afterwards, we’ll see you at Rick’s Cafe for an entertaining evening.

Festival attendees purchasing Starkville City Jail Premium packages can pick them up at Rick’s Cafe at 5 p.m. on Friday. If you haven’t bought your package yet, you still have time. They can be purchased here: http://www.pardonjohnnycash.com/shop.php or at Rick’s Cafe on Friday beginning at 4 p.m.

Starkville City Jail Premium Package

• meet and greet with Kathy Cash Tittle, Jimmy Tittle, Alan Messer and others at Rick’s Cafe from 5-7 p.m., along with beverages and light appetizers
• Priority viewing of Saturday’s Charity Auction items
• Access to VIP area during Saturday’s downtown festival
• VIP Commemorative Festival Lanyard
• Tour of the Starkville City Jail
• Johnny Cash Flower Pickin’ Festival bottled water
• discounts from festival sponsors
• festival information guide
• copy of Starkville’s symboic pardon of Johnny Cash
• JohnnyCashradio.com sticker

John liked to pick flowers. I like to photograph them. John would pick flowers with his bare hands and have them arranged in a vase on the Cinnamon Hill porch in Jamaica, when his wife, June came down for breakfast.
-Alan Messer

View the photography exhibition, “CASH and Flowers,” Monday through Friday at the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, 200 East Main Street. During the festival, the exhibit can be viewed throughout the day on Saturday.

Also, on October 18 at 1:30 in the State Theater, 217 East Main St., Messer will give a digital presentation of his Johnny Cash images.

About Messer:

Grammy award winner, Alan Messer has been photographing musicians for forty years. He has hundreds of album covers to his credit, has been widely published and has received print media and advertising awards.

During the 80’s, Messer was the primary Nashville photographer, often shooting a session or an album cover every day. The American musicians and record companies wanted his marketable straight forward approach to classic photography.

In 1987 Johnny Cash invited Alan to photograph him during a tour and alifelong friendship developed.

Alan was forced into a break after years of a pounding schedule. During this transition period, he was introduced to silk-screen printing, which found immediate commercial success and he won a Grammy in 1989 in the Album Packaging category. A screen print of Alan’s photograph of Johnny Cash set the stage for a series of ten albums for CBS Records (now Sony) called “American Originals”. The Cash print, although not part of the series, defined the graphic style.

A limited edition book of Alan Messer’s photographs of Johnny Cash spanning two decades is to be published in 2009 by Genesis Publications (http://www.genesis-publications.com/press/forthcoming_cash.html), the leading publishers of fabulous authorised bespoke edition books on modern music. “Johnny Cash, American Legend” will be limited to an edition of 2000 copies, worldwide.

www.alanmesser.com