Last week, I had the opportunity to go out to the boyhood home of the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash.
The home, which was occupied until just a few years back, is small and quaint -- just what you'd expect when you imagine the Cash family home. It kind of sits out in the middle of nowhere, which again, is just what you'd expect.
You can also drive into Dyess to the Administration Building where they've set up a little museum with a short home video playing from one of Cash's last trips back to the little country town. The front facade of the old theater is there, as well as a little "pop shop."
But that, much to the chagrin of the city, is about it. Dyess offers little else to draw people off the interstate into a forgettable city and down a gravel road to see a tiny house, unless you count the gross blatant racism I experienced when I stopped at the little general store near the Administration Building.
So I left, underwhelmed and puzzled. Why is this supposed to be such a big deal?
In recent years I've heard phrases like "saving grace to local tourism," "a game-changer for Dyess and the surrounding areas," "one of the single greatest attractions the state has to offer" and so on, tagged onto speeches given about the homestead of the Man in Black. But are people overselling the attraction?
Sure, Johnny Cash is a legend in American music. In fact, for my money, I'd pick Cash's music over that of Elvis Presley any day of the week. But that's because as a musician myself, I sense something far more genuine and sincere in Cash's songs than in Elvis'. I can look at today's music and see a greater positive impact from Johnny Cash than I can see from Elvis.
But not everyone will see that.
Some people are just fans of his music. They grew up with it, they related to it, and in turn, they made a connection to Cash. That certainly could drive a few people out that way, and it probably has.
But the honest truth is Johnny Cash is not as much of a draw as Elvis. There has to be more to it than just Johnny Cash's home and a quick little documentary if people are actually going to get off the interstate, drive through a town with nothing to offer and battle a gravel road, one I almost got stuck on in my Jeep despite it not having rained for several days, just to stand outside of a tiny house and say "Yep, Johnny Cash once lived here."
Because what else can they do?
Honestly, if I were a big Cash fan living anywhere within 100 miles of here, I'd drive over to the Johnny Cash Museum that opened up in Nashville last year. Yeah, it's a much further drive, but when I'm done, the possibilities of what to do next are almost endless.
Don't get me wrong, though -- people will drive out to this house. It will be an attraction worth seeing. It'll likely even create a few jobs. But to say it's going to save local tourism just isn't true.
You see, the biggest flaw the Cash project has is the same flaw every other project around here has. Instead of being honest about what something is going to be, we tend to turn everything into a trip to the moon. I've lived in the area for 20 years, and in that time, I don't know if I've ever seen anything live up to the hype that was created around it -- which makes the endeavor seem like a failure even if it's not.
There are some smart people involved in this, and a lot of money has been raised and donated by people and organizations who believe in the project. But let's stop pitching it as a trip to the moon when it's little more than a tiny house down a gravel road.
For more, follow me on Twitter at @CN_ChrisP. May the force be with you.
cpinkard@blythevillecourier.com