The Shadow
CLIFTON FORGE, Va. (VR) – To celebrate Hull’s Drive-In Theatre’s 75 th Anniversary, The Virginia Opry, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s official Opry, will showcase Cash Unchained in concert on Wed., Aug. 6, at 7:00 p.m. before the screening of “Stagecoach.”
Paying tribute to “The Man in Black,” Cash Unchained has toured the nation with James Tamelcoff, the band’s leader who is a baritone and guitarist that has mastered the vocal gravitas of the “Country Outlaw.” Cash Unchained is one of the 12 official Virginia Opry bands, and its concert at The Historic Masonic Theatre in Clifton Forge in March of 2023, drew a near capacity crowd.
M. Ray Allen, founder and director of The Virginia Opry, said, “Appalfolks of America is proud to team with Hull’s Drive-In Theatre to help celebrate Hull’s 75 th Anniversary, and Cash Unchained will set the tone for the screening “Stagecoach,” in which Johnny Cash stars as the marshal.”
Tamelcoff and Cash Unchained are based in Charlottesville, and the group has been filling seats across the nation by paying tribute to Cash by performing many of his hits such as “Folsom Prison,” “Ring of Fire” and “A Boy Named Sue.” Tamelcoff, 22, began paying tribute to Cash as a teenager, and he has been bringing the memories of Cash back with his baritone voice by taking the audience back in time.
The Cash Unchained drummer and the standup bass guitarist help create the “boom-chicha-boom” sound of Cash’s original band, and among many of Cash’s hits that will be performed are two from his comeback days, “Della’s Gone” and “Hurt.” Allen continued, “I wish to thank Hull’s Drive-In Theatre’s nonprofit organization for inviting The Virginia Opry to co-sponsor the concert, and I wish to thank Charles Overstreet, owner of ACE Hardware stores in Va., and Erin Hunt Ferguson of Hunt Brothers Pizza, Lexington, Ky. for approving sponsorships for this special event.”
“Without Justin Peery, the executive director of The Virginia Opry and leader of Gentlemen South, one of The Virginia Opry’s 12 bands, the Hull’s Drive-In Theatre’s “Summer Concert Series” would not have taken place, and I wish to thank him as well,” Allen concluded.
Johnny Cash portrayed a lawman in the remake of “Stagecoach,” and it aired on CBS on May 18, 1986. The music for the movie was arranged by David Allan Coe and Willie Nelson. All four of the Highwaymen, the country music, super group, star in the film: Waylon Jennings (the Gambler Hatfield), Kris Kristofferson (the Ringo Kid), Nelson (Doc Holiday), and Cash (Marshal Wilcox). The original “Stagecoach” was directed by John Ford in 1939, and it vaulted John Wayne to stardom as the Ringo Kid.
The Virginia Opry made its debut on Oct. 17, 1992, in the Historic Stonewall Theatre in Clifton Forge that Appalfolks owned and operated for 12 years before donating the facility to the Town of Clifton Forge in 2003. Governor Ralph S. Northam signed “Senate Bill 283” to designate The Virginia Opry as the Commonwealth of Virginia’s official Opry on March 31, 2020. The Opry has grown from 10 original members to 72 members who comprise 12 bands.
Tickets for the special event are on sale at Hull’s Drive-In Theatre for $20 which includes the concert and the screening of “Stagecoach.”
