An extremely early Johnny Cash Trio concert poster dating to the winter of 1955-56, printed before the Man In Black had ever stepped foot into the Top 10 of Billboard magazine’s C&W singles chart.

He was just about to, with the double-sided hit “So Doggone Lonesome” b/w “Folsom Prison Blues,” both of which would peak at #4. But they had not ascended into the Top 10 yet when this poster was printed, probably in February or maybe even January (or, granted, even possibly the first few days of March).

This cardboard Johnny Cash Trio poster board was designed and printed by Hatch Showprint out of Nashville, although they almost never put their company name down at the bottom like most other poster printers did.

It was constructed of durable cardboard to withstand outside weather elements, and measures the standard 14×22”.

It feels odd to be calling this a Johnny Cash Trio show poster, because the named used on Cash’s first two Sun Records singles up to this point had been “Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two.” Why that name was not used on this poster, too, I have no idea – although it could’ve been simply for space reasons… three words vs. six.

Headlining the show was Ferlin Huskey and Simon Crum, although they were one & the same person as most fans hopefully knew at the time; and Cowboy Copas with his daughter Kathy Copas, who was just about to retire from the road and raise her family.

The locale for this Johnny Cash Trio tour poster was the Live Stock Auditorium in Valdosta, GA. The date given is simply “Tue. Mar. 13,” with no year… naturally.

This poster came & went in just a few weeks, so why bother putting the year on there? It was probably printed in February and worthless as of March 14, so putting a year on there would have been overkill, which is why most of these old placards have no year.

This Johnny Cash Trio broadside is happily shown to you today by Peter J. Howard, long-time music-business executive and now music historian. That’s me, and you can reach out to me either through pete@postercentral.com or by dialing (805) 540-0020. If you have an old poster like this, please remember that I happily pay the best prices in the whole poster-collecting hobby for the best vintage concert-advertising window cards.

And to see another 1956 Johnny Cash concert poster, this one more stylized and with his photo, just slide your computer’s mouse over to http://www.postercentral.com/country.htm