Bobby Cash (born 13 February 1961) is an Indian

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

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 themselve ...

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 def ...

Ponnu Elizabeth Mathew "The Indian cowboy...one in a billion" ''

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu ...

'' (Bengaluru, India) 19 August 2009 Retrieved April 20, 2016 who lives in Clement Town, a suburb of

Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...

district in the state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

. 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 A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film, ''The Indian Cowboy...One in a Billion'', aired on ABC 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 ''vaquero'' ...

, one in a billion" by media.

Early life

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

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, regularly sent the latest country music releases of the time to Cash'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 style or form 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 fo ...

musicians, he developed his own

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

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 r ...

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

"The Bobby Cash Show" www.indianexpress.com 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)

Cash's career began performing in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, 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 (India) label with Indian pop director and producer, Jawahar Wattal. This was followed by a guitar

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

the same year called ''Film Hits on Guitar'' In 1998, Cash recorded ''Ruk Ja Baby'' with Archies Music. Indian pop, however, could not capture Cash'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 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, Tamworth, New South Wales. The f ...

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 Cash performing in the festival and see what happened there. Thus, in January 2003, Cash went to perform in the Tamworth Country Music Festival. An unknown, 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 Cash's debut country music album What happened at the festival, and Cash rising from being an unknown to celebrity status became the subject of Bromley's documentary film, ''The Indian Cowboy...One in a Billion''. 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, the album also featured duets with Smoky Dawson and Tania Kernaghan. In June 2005, Cash's music was recognized in the United States by the

Country Music Association The Country Music Association (CMA) is an American trade association with the stated aim of promoting and developing country music throughout the world. Founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee, it originally consisted of 233 members and was the f ...

, 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 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, 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 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

Cash lives with his wife Angelina and two children 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)iTunes
''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 Indian 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 1961 births Indian country musicians Living people