About
Wanted Man is a tribute band for hire in Newcastle, NSW.
Michael Mack fronts WANTED MAN, a Newcastle-based tribute to Johnny Cash built around two sets that walk through the whole career. The rockabilly Sun Records material comes first, then the prison concert songs, the June Carter duets, and the stripped-back later work from the American Recordings years. Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line, Ring of Fire, A Boy Named Sue, Man in Black, Hurt. What holds it together is the voice and the fact that the band treats Cash as a storyteller rather than a costume. The show runs with a screen behind the band for video and slides. They bring PA and lighting unless the venue has its own.
Watch
The show
Michael Mack's voice is the thing people mention first, and it does sound uncannily like Cash. But the band's real interest is in the storytelling. These are songs about work, prison, faith and getting things wrong, written by a man who spoke to ordinary people, and WANTED MAN play them as stories rather than as a costume act. The struggles and the wins both get their moment. It's why the material still lands with a room full of people who weren't born when most of it was recorded.
On the day
The band works in a stage area of seven metres by four, with a large screen behind them for the video and slideshow that runs through the show. A dressing room for five people is needed. PA and lighting come with the act unless your venue is supplying its own.
Song list
35 songs
Cry! Cry! Cry!
Folsom Prison Blues
I Walk the Line
Hey Porter
There You Go
Ballad of a Teenage Queen
Big River
Guess Things Happen That Way
Get Rhythm
Don't Take Your Guns to Town
Five Feet High and Rising
The Rebel - Johnny Yuma
Tennessee Flat Top Box
Ring of Fire
The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Orange Blossom Special
Wanted Man
It Ain't Me, Babe (with June Carter)
Jackson (with June Carter)
Darling Companion (with June Carter)
Daddy Sang Bass
A Boy Named Sue (live at San Quentin)
Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down
Man in Black
