Johnny Cash Birthday Bash, Feb. 24-25 – Brooklyn

As reported in No Depression back in 2005: “One February night, along the half-abandoned Brooklyn waterfront, Johnny Cash had a birthday party. A couple hundred people had packed a former longeshoreman’s bar to hear the songs of Cash and his in-laws, the Carter Family. Outside, a steady stream of yellow cabs pulled up, delivering locals and slumming Gothamites who’d heard about a ‘scene’ in deepest darkest Brooklyn.”

That’s how it was back at Southpaw in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, NY. Sadly, the New York Times reports, that club recently closed. This year’s Johnny Cash Birthday Bash — the Man in Black would have turned 80 on Feb. 26 — will be held tonight at Bell House, 149 Seventh St., Gowanus, Brooklyn, and Saturday at Littlefield, 622 Degraw St.

Alex Battles and the Whisky Rebellion lead the festivities.

No word yet as to an appearance by Rosanne Cash.

More information at Time Out New York.