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Beautiful World by Justin Cash {Giveaway}

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I have this habit picked up from my mother that drives my children nuts. It used to drive me crazy too when my mom did it. And now I do it, go figure! When I’m driving down the road listening to good music I place my hands at the top of the steering wheel and start tapping my thumbs to the rhythm and bopping my head to the beat {and usually sing too}.

Beautiful World, the new album by Justin Cash, is full of thumb tapping, head bopping, feed your soul goodness.

Not only is Justin a good singer and songwriter, he also plays the guitar amazingly well {electric guitar to be specific and I still love it!}. His rhythm and blues style is catchy, the lyrics to his songs touching. A couple of the songs on the album are remakes of oldies but goodies – Don’t Worry, Be Happy and Over the Rainbow – but it is his original works that shine.

No Sorrow in Jesus reminds us to whom we owe everything. “There is no sorrow in Jesus. There is no sorrow in this world. There is no sorrow in Jesus. Only hope and promise in his word. . . In this world, there will be suffering, In this world there will be grief. There is One whose hand is oh so strong, and He will being relief.” Justin explains a little bit about writing the song before performing it in this youtube video.

Beautiful World contains a message we all need to hear, even with death and war, pain and sorrow, this world is still beautiful. Take a listen.


I had the chance to ask Justin a few questions.

Montserrat: I’ve shared on my blog before about my Dad serenading us to sleep as he played his guitar, singing songs like Blackbird or Hey, Hey. Anytime I hear them now I am taken back to my childhood. What song do you remember most from childhood? What musical memories do you have?
Justin: This sounds ridiculous, but here goes…In New Mexico, as an infant, I used to bang my head against the headboard of the crib at night. I would bang my little noggin so hard that the crib- with me in it- would gradually scoot all the way across the smooth tile floor during the night. 
What would you think if you walked in to find your kid on the other side of the room from where you put him? It happened so often that my parents took me in to see the doctor, who said: “This is certainly strange. I have heard, though, that it is a sign of musical talent.”
 Some of my first guitar lessons were from a wonderful, beret-wearing mustached singer/guitarist from Greenwich Village, NYC, named Skip Grabow. We started with the Blues, and then Dylan, and then moved to the Beatles.  So, those three ingredients: The Blues, Dylan, and The Beatles, were like my musical “meat and potatoes” growing up.
Montserrat: We all have certain gifts to share with others. Obviously yours is the gift of music. When did you realize that music was your “call” in life?
Justin: For me, the realization that music is part of what I was born to do has come very gradually, like the growth of a tree. Rather than a specific point when I made a single big decision, my life has been a series of thousands of small checkpoints along the path…
Slowly with each step, you learn more, and you grow into the person you are becoming. Meanwhile, you find that the path you’ve been searching for is the path that you’re already on.  It’s a beautiful process that, just like a relationship or a garden, takes time and daily weeding and feeding.
Montserrat: The song “If You Try” talks about trading our fear for faith and following the voice inside us. I’m wondering if this song is a sort of an autobiography of your life. How hard is it/was it to trust in yourself to support your family through your music?  What gave you the push to just dive in and give it a try?

Before reading the rest of this interview take a listen to If You Try. It is one of my favorites on the album!

Justin: I believe that all of us are born with gifts that are special and unique to us.  There is a voice inside of all of us. Name it what you will, it’s real. It speaks to you throughout your whole life, like your own personal GPS. Yes, those lines from the song “If You Try” are my own story.
For me it has been a long, hard road.  In 2004,my wife, Annie (who sings a duet with me on “God Only Made One of You”) and I decided to move to Dallas, TX so I could get a Master’s degree in music. I’ll never forget that frightening feeling of teetering over the edge of a leap of faith.  Suddenly there I was, with my sweet wife and infant son, loading our meager possessions into a tiny, moldy Texas apartment in the pouring rain, no job, wondering how this was all going to work out. I went to school during the day and worked most nights in the city, playing music to provide for the family.  My wife stretched one-dollar bills into ten-dollar bills, and we somehow made it through together.
I clearly recall sitting down in Dallas one afternoon after graduating, just to ponder my lack of clear direction in life. “The voice” came into my mind as clear as a lightning bolt: “Make an album”.  He might as well have told me “Climb Mt. Everest barefoot… in shorts”.
 As a freelance session guitarist, scraping up a living playing on jingles and in jazz clubs, I couldn’t conceive at that moment how to pay for such a mammoth expense. It seemed like an impossible request, made by my buddy “the voice”.
After getting together what I felt were my best songs, I booked the initial studio sessions for the album “Beautiful World”, in good faith that the money to pay for it would come.  It wasn’t until after those sessions were booked that some of the various performance opportunities that helped us pay for the making of the record came up. In other words, I had to believe first, then act.
Montserrat: Your songs are upbeat with the underlying message of hope- in ourselves, in others, in the world. Does this feeling of hope come naturally to you or is it something you have learned through experiences in your life?
Justin:  Well, my career hasn’t been a rose garden, at least not at first. I know what it’s like to have to fight a club owner for money he owes you…and lose. I know what it’s like to feel waves of anxiety almost overcome me, after losing important jobs to circumstances beyond my control. I know what it’s like to walk the long, arduous path of a career in the music industry.  It’s not been easy, ever.
However, after all of those tough times, I’ve always had something come through at the eleventh hour.  In other words, in the very end, sometimes when I thought I couldn’t go on much longer, things ALWAYS worked out, there was an answer, some solution that would seem to come from above. I learned and grew as a human being, father, and writer through these challenges.
So, I’ve learned to choose hope over doubt, through experience. That said, I guess I was created with a little extra helping of optimism, bordering on pollyanna-ness inside me! But seriously, though- in those moments where you come dangerously close to giving up, it often means that you are literally around the corner from the finish line…you just didn’t know it!
Montserrat: What musical artists have influenced you and your bluesy style?   What music are you listening to right now?
Justin: As far as early influences, if I could pinpoint one, it would have to be Eric Clapton.  A close second would be James Taylor.  However, it’s honestly been over a decade since I really listened to them. I love J.S. Bach, I REALLY love jazz, and most of what I listen to these days is world music- music from Brazil, Africa, Latin America.  I’m also a big fan of Justin Bieber!
Montserrat: And finally, what is the best thing about being a husband and father? 
Justin: The best thing about being a husband and father: It centers your life on true priorities. For example, one evening a few years ago, I took my oldest son, James, along with me to go perform a solo acoustic show here in Texas. He was sitting down coloring with crayons when he overheard a lady next to him say to her husband: “Who would you say the greatest guitarist in the world is?” Her husband answered: “ Oh, I don’t know, probably Clapton.”
To her shock, my little son James spun around and exclaimed, matter-of-factly: “No, he’s not. MY DAD is the greatest guitarist in the world.”
Both the lady and her husband laughed out loud, and so did I. However, on a serious note- to know that my son thinks highly of me as a person-that is a far greater reward than being the world’s best at anything.

Thanks so much Justin for letting us learn a little more about you and your journey! You can download Justin’s album Beautiful World at itunes or buy the album from Deseret Book.  You can preview some of Justin’s songs on his webpage Go Justin Cash or listen to most of the songs on the album at his youtube channel.

Today Justin Cash is giving away one of his CDs! To enter the giveaway leave a comment telling about a song that takes you back to your childhood. Extra entries are listed on the rafflecopter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Comments

  3. Anything by the Beatles (the early years). My father loved them and would play them on the record player, moving the speakers to the patio. I remember working on the yards while singing along.

    Reply

  5. “Whenever I Hear the Song of a Bird” – my mother drew up a poster to help us learn the lyrics, and I remember thinking it was the most beautiful song in the world when she sang it.

    Reply

  6. My grandmother used to sing “Hi Lilly, Hi Lo” all the time. I play the piano every week at a senior’s home, and this one always reminds me of sitting in her living room while she sang. 🙂

    Reply

  10. Music wasn’t a big thing in my childhood. My sister listened to New Kids on the Block and then there was the old time country. My first walkman I was given a tape from George ? If I saw the name now I would remember it but I would remember it. I used to know all the song on that tape. Not so much anymore!

    Reply

  11. We would play and dance in our basement all winter long in NJ. I loved the song by the Turtles “Daydream” and choreographed a little dance with my sister. It is a cute song with a bouncy tune.

    Reply

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