Press article, Owatonna 4-24-15 by Kim Hyatt

OWATONNA — Carrying on the torch and deep baritone voice of the one of the most iconic American musicians is New Ulm native Jay “Jayder” Kalk who says seeing his band “is the next best thing to seeing the Man in Black himself, which is impossible.”

“My voice sounds like him when I sing. I really dig it,” Kalk said. “Johnny Cash is more than a singer, though. He’s an American storyteller. Some people say, ‘I don’t like country, I don’t like Johnny Cash.’ But Johnny Cash surpasses country music. He’s beyond that. He’s almost beyond music. He’s an American hero at this point.”

Kalk isn’t playing in prisons, but he knows how to draw a crowd to bars from Honolulu to Owatonna.

“At one time we considered saying we’re based out of Owatonna because our biggest following is out of there,” said Kalk. “The people know us there and everybody knows Johnny Cash.”

This Saturday, April 25, at 9 p.m., the Legion in Owatonna will host Kalk’s tribute band Church of Cash with Jumping George Marich on the drums, Kellie Nitz on double bass and vocals, and Sweet Johnny Becker on guitar.

Because who doesn’t love some Johnny Cash music?

Kalk, 40, returned to Minneapolis in 2011 after living in Arizona and California and touring the globe with several reggae bands. But it wasn’t until a few years prior to coming back to his roots that he realized, after nearly 20 years of performing, there was something missing.

Staring out the window of his Hong Kong hotel room, he patted himself on the back.

“Here I was, this small town kid from New Ulm in China playing music,” he said.

But then, a paradigm shift.

“I wanted to do something different,” he continued. “I was always backing up other bands and never had my own, so that was the next challenge.”

At that time, Kalk already had a Cash tribute band just for fun back in Honolulu that was gaining popularity, mainly because of the troops.

“The kids coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq at this stopover point, they really wanted hear American music again. We were packing everywhere we were playing,” he said.

And so the Church of Cash was born.

Of course Kalk grew up listening to J.R., “my old man was a huge Johnny Cash fan.”

“When I was a kid, we’d be outside working and hanging out and he was always singing Johnny Cash.”

He was a “choir nerd” at New Ulm High School and in college, he was ready to pursue a career in classical music, but at the same time he was in a band.

“I was at an impasse: Do I do classical or do I do this rock and roll thing?” he said. “I went with rock and roll, quit college and started touring.”

National tours consumed his life as he was on the road 275 days a year. A situation he would soon find himself in again was another challenge: international performances and a four-year stint in Hawaii that was the birthplace of Church of Cash.

All those years touring and performing gave him the skills to pull off the iconic sound and style, and he knew he had a good thing going for him — good enough to bring back to the Midwest.

“As a musician, you get use to nobody listening from time to time,” Kalk admitted. “But every time I played Johnny Cash, people would look up from the table and away from their beer and check me out.”

They’re some large cowboy boots to fill, and Kalk said he knows there are other Cash tribute bands out there, “but I believe that in the Midwest, we are carrying that torch.”

Church of Cash will perform this Saturday at the Legion in Owatonna and on Aug. 23 at the Steele County Free Fair.