The Tennessee Three

The Tennessee Three was the backing band for country and rockabilly singer Johnny Cash for nearly 25 years, providing the unique backing that came to be recognized by fans as "the Johnny Cash sound".

Roy Cash Sr., oldest brother of Johnny Cash, was service manager at a car dealership in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1953, while the younger Cash was stationed in Germany with the US Air Force, Luther Perkins joined the staff there, where he met co-workers Marshall Grant and A.W. "Red" Kernodle. Grant, Kernodle and Perkins began bringing their guitars to work and would play together when repair business was slow.

When Johnny Cash moved to Memphis after returning from Germany in 1954, Roy introduced him to Grant, Kernodle, and Perkins. The four began to get together in the evenings at Perkins' or Grant's home and play songs. During this time they decided to form a band, with Grant moving to an upright bass, Kernodle to a six-string steel guitar, and Perkins buying a Fender Esquire electric guitar. Perkins' performance style on the Fender resulted in the band's famous steady, simple "boom-chicka-boom" or "freight train" rhythm.

By 1955, Cash and his bandmates were in the Memphis studio of Sun Records to audition for owner Sam Phillips. Kernodle was so nervous that he left the session and the group, not wanting to hold them back. The band presented themselves as "The Tennessee Three", but Phillips suggested that they call themselves Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. When Cash moved to Columbia Records in 1958, Grant and Perkins followed him.

In 1960, drummer W.S. Holland joined the group, which was renamed The Tennessee Three. Holland has been credited as one of the first country music drummers. He had collaborated with Cash on recordings earlier in the 1950s, as well as having played with Carl Perkins (no relation to Luther Perkins) and the "Perkins Brothers Band". In 1961, the group released two instrumental singles on Columbia recorded in 1959 (before Holland joined) as The Tennessee Two and Friend. The four songs would later be included in Cash's greatest hits collection More of Old Golden Throat.

Luther Perkins died from injuries sustained in a house fire in August 1968 after reportedly having fallen asleep with a lit cigarette. Bob Wootton filled in as the group's guitarist at a performance the following month and then continued with the band. He participated in their landmark February 1969 performance with Cash at San Quentin State Prison, when the singer's live album was recorded.

In 1971, the group (without Cash and Carl Perkins) recorded an instrumental album dedicated to Luther Perkins: The Tennessee Three: The Sound Behind Johnny Cash.

Through the 1970s, the Tennessee Three continued to work as Cash's studio and stage backing group. One major exception occurred in 1975 when Columbia Records, seeking to update Cash's sound, had the singer record an album with a new set of session musicians (including members of Elvis Presley's touring band), titled John R. Cash. This was the only major Cash recording of the era on which no member of The Tennessee Three participated. The album was unsuccessful. The next album released, Look at Them Beans, reinstated both the Tennessee Three as core session musicians and the accompanying Johnny Cash sound.