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As an undergraduate history major at Boston University, friends flipping through Marc Ferris”™ stack of vinyl had a habit of raising one or two albums to the desk lamp with that most classic of college interrogatives: “Dude ”“ what the hell is this?”
In his freshman year, Ferris had peppered his collection with some adamantly anticollegiate LP”™s: a Lebanese folk album and a pair of albums titled “American Negro Spirituals” and “African Jungle Rhythms and Chants.”
“I always liked all kinds of music,” Ferris said. The Lebanese folk songs were a holdover from a year spent in Israel as a teen when he and his brother came to enjoy Arab music on the radio. “I always had thirsty ears.”
Ferris could well possess, in fact, the thirstiest ears. He grew up on serious punk of the Clash and the Sex Pistols, saying Elvis Costello ”“ edgy by most standards ”“ lacked edge. Such tastes would seem an improbable introduction to gigs as a guitar strumming acolyte of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash who performs under the moniker Hank Cash, but Ferris has ditched “Anarchy in the U.K.” ”“ a Sex Pistols headbanger ”“ for walking the line in the shoes of the Man in Black, Johnny Cash.
Ferris, 45, is also an authority on “The Star-Spangled Banner,” about which he is writing his doctoral history dissertation at Stony Brook University. He calls it “the most controversial song in American history,” noting its tune ”“ based on a bawdy drinking song generally called “To Anacreon in Heaven” ”“ has been co-opted toward such disparate causes as abolition, temperance, belly laughs and partisan politics. It turns out Jimi Hendrix”™ version on electric guitar at Woodstock was not so iconoclastic, after all.
Ferris cites Jimmy Rogers, Hank Williams and Bill Monroe, the fathers of country music, as favorites, along with Buddy Holly. He notes the country music art form is sometimes called the “white blues,” even though Rogers, Williams and Monroe all studied at the knees of African-American musicians, who a century before had begun spinning the blues. His point is that no music springs from the ether. Other influences that have shaped country music, Ferris said, are jazz, pop, early 20th-century Tin Pan Alley, Irish and gospel. Add reggae and Cajun sounds in Ferris”™ case.
“It”™s an amalgam of all sorts of things and to me it”™s fascinating,” Ferris said. “It looks simple on the surface, but it”™s a lot harder to pull off than you would think.” To hear for yourself, Hank Cash will play SunSplash Jamaican Cuisine and Rhythms in Elmsford Sept. 11. (“Country is huge in the Caribbean,” Ferris said.)
Ferris”™ shows also include original material, such as “A Fifth of Bourbon and a Six Pack” and “Stop Thinking, Start Drinking.” “These are not about me or anyone I know,” he said, “but they”™re catchy and they run in the country vein. A good country song is the most unpretentious form of music. It”™s about the song and it”™s seriously about the lyrics.”
Ferris also embraces on stage a pair of noncountry personas: Otis Cook (for Otis Redding and Sam Cooke), who sings classic soul; and Toots Marley (for Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals and Bob Marley), who sings classic reggae.
Ferris is senior account manager at Giles Communications L.L.C., a public relations and marketing company at 2975 Westchester Ave. in Purchase. His major account is Yamaha brand music and sound equipment. Yamaha is also his guitar of choice for performing. “I”™m the perfect person for the job and the job is perfect for me,” he said of representing Yamaha. His company web site is giles.com.
