Rootsy soul-man, storytelling singer-songwriter, bar-room belteree Australian musician Tex Perkins has a long back catalogue. Yet, despite the success of a career approaching 30 years, Perkins admits his latest incarnation - as Johnny Cash - couldn't have been better timed.
Having made its debut in Australia in mid-2009, The Man In Black: The Johnny Cash Story has not only sated Perkins' long-held passion for the late US star's music, but by keeping him out of the studio for a good while, the stage show has also enabled Perkins to avoid conceding any money to a record company via a clause that demanded royalties for 12 months after his contract officially ended.
Perkins' long career features nine albums with Aria Award-winning roots outfit The Cruel Sea, the same number with pub rockers The Beasts of Bourbon, three stripped-back country releases as Tex, Don (Walker) and Charlie (Owen) and four albums under the moniker Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses.
Yet to suggest Perkins' role as Cash is somewhat chameleonic is to miss tracing an essential arc in his career, which is that much of the music he plays is wrapped in the dust and dank of the USA's southern states.
In fact, his first band, The Dum Dums, a cow-punk outfit he started with a few fellow teens in Brisbane in the early 1980s, boasted a set-list comprising 50% Cash songs.
"I learned to sing doing Cash songs. I've been a fan since I was six. I know this material very well," Perkins explains from Rotorua earlier this week.
"One of the reasons this show works is that it's not that much of a stretch for me to act or impersonate him. My lifestyle and music fits well with his songs. I have had to roll my 'rrrs' a bit more, but I play my natural game.
"We honour the music as much as possible but I think it's important to play your natural game as opposed to giving a meticulously detailed impersonation.
It's important the audience gets the sense there is something real on stage."
As Cash, Perkins has performed more than 120 shows, a run that continues with the New Zealand tour, which includes a show at Dunedin's Mayfair Theatre this Wednesday, July 6.
Rachael Tidd, who plays Johnny's wife June Carter Cash, has also been there from the start, backed by an accomplished line-up known as the Tennessee Four (Steve Hadley, musical director and bass guitar; David Folley, drums; Shannon Bourne, guitar; and Shane Reilly, guitar).
"We not only know our chops, but we know each other as well," Perkins says.
"We've developed that telepathy that all good bands should. Along the way we have had to have stand-in musicians here and there because the players all have other careers, but Rachael and I have been there from the start."
Perkins says that although The Man In Black deals mostly with Cash's early career - and thus includes staples such as Ring of Fire, I Walk The Line, Folsom Prison Blues and Jackson, there are also nods to Cash's more recent work.
"I think the last 10 years are equally important as the first 10 of his career. The '80s weren't kind to very many artists ... he certainly came good in the Rick Rubin-American Recordings period.
"There are some songs you have to do, but some songs we can bench and bring in others. It keeps it fresh for us and keeps people guessing, too.
"Hurt is a really great song as far as the narrative of the show goes; it deals with the end of June and Johnny's lives.
"I had a hand in writing the script. The original writer was an old bloke and he didn't even know about the last 10 years of Cash's career.
"He had a very successful late career as well and you have to address that."
• The Man In Black: The Johnny Cash Story will be performed at the Westpac Mayfair Theatre, Dunedin, this Wednesday, July 6.
