Kris Kristofferson at the Johnny Cash Music Festival.

  • BRIAN CHILSON
  • Kris Kristofferson at the Johnny Cash Music Festival.

Click here to see Brian Chilson’s slideshow from the concert.

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There is probably no other American musician more beloved than Johnny Cash, who has essentially attained something akin to sainthood. But then few other artists touched as many people’s lives and gave back so much to his fellow performers, so it’s no wonder that the man inspired such adoration.

The inaugural Johnny Cash Music Festival, hosted last night at Arkansas State University, was a fundraiser to restore the New Deal-funded house in Dyess, where the Cash family moved in 1935. This year, most of the performers were either related to Cash by blood or, like Kris Kristofferson and George Jones, might as well have been Cash’s brothers. Because there were so many performers on the bill, the concert felt a bit like eating off of a big, particularly delicious sampler tray — almost everything is great, but it all runs out too quickly.

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That said, there were some great performances to be savored. When Jones and the backing band launched into the opening bars of “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” the crowd went crazy.