Manager cashes in on country music talent
By Joe Jackson Special to the Acorn

Talent manager Frank Campana’s phone lines have been heating up with requests for client Tommy Cash ever since the release of “Walk the Line,” the film that traces the story of Cash’s famous brother, Johnny.

Campana, who has lived in Agoura for 35 years, is no stranger to working with stars. As a former director of artist relations and promotions at Columbia Records, he helped cultivate the careers of many well-known singers, television personalities and actors, including Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis and Barbra Streisand.

Campana began his career as a singer in the ’40s and ’50s but moved to the business side of the music industry when rock and roll took all of the radio time from his style of singing.

Campana has known the Cash brothers for more than 40 years. “I was like part of the family,” he recalled. “I knew the father and the mother. I used to go to their house and eat grits with them.”

He started working with Johnny in the mid-’50s when Cash moved from Sun Records to Columbia Records. During that time Campana went to nearly all of Johnny’s shows.

Campana has worked with Tommy since the ’70s.

“(He) helped me to get dozens of commercial jobs back then,” Tommy recalled. For several years Tommy was represented by a manager closer to his home in Nashville. Then, about a year ago, he asked Campana to sign him again.

Today, with his brother Johnny’s story receiving such high-profile attention through “Walk the Line,” which has already garnered Golden Globe awards and looks to be an Oscar contender, Tommy’s own career is getting a boost.

He’s currently on a worldwide tribute tour honoring Johnny. His website says the show features “about 25 Johnny Cash hits, mainly the most recognizable ones.”

“The tribute show is for the respect and love that I have for the integrity that my brother brought to country music,” Tommy said.

The show features Tommy with a five-person band he says he’s proud to work with. “They make me look really good,” he said. He also has a tribute album titled “A Musical Tribute to My Brother Johnny Cash.”

Tommy said he would like to bring the show to the West Coast. “We are hoping to go to Reno, Lake Tahoe, as well as Laughlin and hopefully some of the Southern California casinos,” said the musician.

Not bad for a boy named Cash.