Bobby Cash (born 13 February 1961) is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer, songwriter,

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Ponnu Elizabeth Mathew "The Indian cowboy...one in a billion" ''The New Indian Express'' (Bengaluru, India) 19 August 2009 Retrieved Wednesday, April 20, 2016 who lives in

Clement Town Clement Town is a cantonment town in Dehradun, Dehradun district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Clement Town is from the clock tower in main city of Dehradun. Saharanpur and Haridwar are respectively. It also borders Rajaji National Park ...

, a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

district in the state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

. He is praised by media for being India's first international country music artist who has charted singles in Australia, and also for being the only Indian country music artist to be featured in a documentary film, ''The Indian Cowboy...One in a Billion'', aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Television (Australia) in January 2004 and on

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

channel in India in June 2004. He is known as "The Indian

Cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

, one in a billion" by media.

Early life

Bobby Cash grew up in Clement Town, Dehradun. An aunt of his, who lived in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

, regularly sent the latest country music releases of the time to Bobby's mother. This was the music he grew up listening to and which he loved so much that he taught himself to play the guitar and sing those songs. Because of the dearth of other country music style

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

musicians, he developed his own

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

style that encompassed playing bass lines,

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

finger-picking Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plectr ...

and lead to give a unique sound. While in Dehradun, Bobby Cash gave music lessonsand occasionally performed for the armed forces.Suanshu Khurana, Suanshu Khurana

"The Bobby Cash Show" www.indianexpress.com (National newspaper, India) Friday, april 20 2012 It was only in 1995, after his father died, that he moved to New Delhi to pursue a career as a solo musical artist.

Career

Early music career (1995–2002)

Bobby Cash's career began performing in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

, at the popular hot spot, Rodeo. While in New Delhi, he briefly dabbled in Indian pop music. In 1996, he recorded his first Indian pop album ''Yeh Pyaar Hai'' under the

Magnasound Magnasound was an Indian record company that specialized in Indian classical music, Indian rock and Indipop. It was distributed by OMI Music Inc. Shashi Gopal was the managing director of Magnasound. History Shashi Gopal founded Magnasound in ...

(India) label with Indian pop director and producer,

Jawahar Wattal Jawahar Wattal is an Indian cultural entrepreneur, music director and producer, best known for being a pioneer in the Indian non-filmi music field and for shifting the focus of the industry to Delhi. He has worked with singers Baba Sehgal and ...

. This was followed by a guitar

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

the same year called ''Film Hits on Guitar''In 1998, Bobby Cash recorded ''Ruk Ja Baby'' with Archies Music. Indian pop, however, could not capture Bobby's heart and he returned to his first love, country music.

2003–present

A chance meeting with Australian film producer, Colin Bromley while in New Delhi, resulted in Bobby Cash being invited to the

Tamworth Country Music Festival The Tamworth Country Music Festival is an annual Australian music festival held for 10 days from Friday to Sunday in mid to late January each year, sometimes including Australia Day, in Tamworth, New South Wales. The festival is the second bigg ...

in New South Wales, Australia. Having heard him sing, and being impressed by his musicianship, Bromley, producer/director of Sydney-based television production house, Gobsmacked and Gerry O'Leary, Gobsmacked's head of production, decided to make a film on Bobby Cash performing in the Festival and see what happened there. Thus, in January 2003, Bobby Cash went to perform in the Tamworth Country Music Festival.An unknown, Bobby Cash struck a chord with the country music lovers there and grabbed the attention of the media. A local wealthy farmer, Roy Eykamp, came forward and offered to finance Bobby Cash's debut country music albumWhat happened at the Festival, and Bobby Cash rising from being an unknown to

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

status became the subject of Bromley's documentary film, ''The Indian Cowboy...One in a Billion''. Bobby Cash recorded his debut album, ''Cowboy at Heart'', with some of the cream of the Australian music industry. Produced by Golden Guitar winner,

Lawrie Minson Lawrence (Lawrie) Minson (born 13 September 1958) is an Australian country musician, best known as a session player. Career Minson is the son of former Australian radio personality John Minson. His country music career commenced in 1979 acco ...

, the album also featured duets with

Smoky Dawson Smoky Dawson AM, MBE (19 March 191313 February 2008), born as Herbert Henry Brown, was an Australian Country, Western and folk performer, radio star, entertainer, and icon. He was widely touted as Australia's first singing cowboy complete with ...

and

Tania Kernaghan Tania Maree Kernaghan (born 18 July 1968) is an Australian country music singer. During her career, Tania has earned fifteen number one radio hits singles, numerous awards, sell out concerts and record sales in the hundreds of thousands. She h ...

. In June 2005, Bobby Cash's music was recognized in the United States by the

Country Music Association The Country Music Association (CMA) was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre. The objectives of the organization are to guide and enha ...

, Nashville, Tennessee. India is listed on the country music world map as one of the foreign territories outside the United States with a country music culture and Bobby Cash was invited as one of CMA's nominees for Global Artist of the Year Award given in recognition for furthering of country music in a territory other than the United States. While he did not win the Award, Bobby Cash's performance at The Stage On Broadway did lead to a standing ovation led by the then chief of CMA, Ed Benson. The same year, heading back to Australia, he proceeded to record his second album, ''Phoenix to El Paso'', a collection of cover versions of crowd favorites. In 2006, he recorded a third album, ''State of My Heart''. Both albums, ''Cowboy at Heart'' and ''State of My Heart'' had several tracks from them making it to the Top Ten Australian country music charts. In August 2014, his music single 'Ashiyaan' was published by Songdew Bobby Cash toured and played extensively in Australia for a number of years. Currently, he tours mostly in India playing and promoting country music.

Personal life

Bobby Cash lives with his wife Angelina and two children, Saira and Ricky, in Clement Town, Dehradun, India.

Discography

Hindi-Pop Albums (India)

*''Yeh Pyaar Hai'' (Magnasound, 1996) *''Film Hits On Guitar'' (Magnasound, 1996) *''Ruk Ja Baby'' (Archies Music, 1998)

Country Music Albums (Australia)

*''Cowboy at Heart'' (Gobsmacked Television, Australia, 2003 & Universal Music, India, 2004) *''Phoenix to El Paso'' (Gobsmacked Music, Australia, 2004) *''State of My Heart'' (Gobsmacked Music, 2006)

Singles

*''World Beneath My Wings'' (from the album ''Light of Hope'', Meat Pie Music(APRA), 2008)https://itunes.apple.com "Light of Hope" by Various Artists (Music CD) "The World Beneath My Wings", (Artist - Bobby Cash) Released : 04 July 2008 Meat Pie Music (APRA)

Documentary Film

*''The Indian Cowboy...One in a Billion'' (2004) *''Rockumentary: Evolution of Indan Rock (2018)''

Bollywood Song

*''Budhau'' (from the Hindi language Feature film Gulabo Sitabo (2020, Rising Sun Productions, Amazon Prime Video)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cash, Bobby Indian country musicians