Info:

Story from Tom Loughlin, who attended the show:

In the mid-sixties, The Frontier Room was a popular country and western nightclub just south of Trenton, New Jersey. It was part of a larger complex called The Whitehorse Bowling Academy. During the week the club featured local rhinestone cowboy bands and on weekends hosted big name recording artists like Roy Clark, George Jones, Don Gibson, Bill Anderson, and Hank Thompson. The big-name groups usually featured a lead singer, one or two back-up guitarists, a fiddler, and a pedal steel guitar player.



About once or twice a month, or on special occasions, our family would visit the Frontier Room and listen to live country music. Friday May 29, 1964 was a particular occasion—it was my dad’s birthday, he turned forty-five. As regulars to the club, we were on their mailing list of coming events. When we received the newsletter announcing that Johnny Cash would be there, well let’s just say I pleaded with Mom and Dad to make arrangements ASAP! Perhaps because we were regulars to the club, in any event we lucked out and got front row seats.



With Johnny Cash that evening was June Carter, The Tennessee Two (bass fiddle player Marshall Grant and guitarist Luther Perkins) and Johnny’s new back-up vocal group, The Statler Brothers. Johnny Cash was thirty-two years old then.



June introduced Johnny that evening as ‘Old Golden Throat’ and added “Elvis would have been here tonight, but the Beatles done ate him up!” Everyone laughed. Throughout the evening, people would walk up to the bandstand and snap pictures or leave song requests for Johnny to play.



Johnny Cash didn’t bring along a real mariachi band that night, so when he performed Ring of Fire, a couple of the Statler Brothers improvised and cupped their hands around the microphone and provided the trumpet accompaniment. You can see this in one of the pictures. Trust me, it was a hoot! Johnny also brought out two chrome pipes (about eighteen inches in length) and performed The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer.

I wrote on a coaster that it was my dad’s birthday and included his name. A minute later that deep unmistakable voice asked “Is there a Bob Loughlin here tonight?” We waved back and Johnny said “Happy Birthday, Bob!”



In April of 1964, Johnny Cash recorded the album BITTER TEARS (Columbia) featuring The Ballad of Ira Hays. On Monday, June 1st 1964, he appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. New York City is about an hour and a half drive from Trenton. Later that summer he appeared with Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival.



I took seven black and white pictures that evening with the family’s Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. I have always treasured the pictures and recently scanned the negatives using my Microtek graphics scanner and Adobe Photoshop. The seven pictures are in JPEG format (small file size) and are easy to attach to emails.



And why is one of the pictures reversed? So you can use it for an Iron-on T-shirt!



Enjoy the pictures and feel free to share them and this story with your friends.

Tom Loughlin Here are the pictures Tom took that evening. Just click to enlarge!

































