Scene Maker Q+A: Country stalwart Sherwin Linton shares stories of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan

Sherwin Linton, Minnesota’s most enduring country singer, made a startling discovery last weekend at the Kittson County Fair: Eight or 10 people in the audience saw him at that same fairgrounds back in 1969.

Linton reckons he’s entertained at all but a dozen of the nearly 100 county fairs in the Gopher State. Not bad for a guy from South Dakota, where he’s played their state fair for 50 years (three shows a day) even though he moved to the Twin Cities in 1958.

Along the way, Linton — he of the deep, gravelly voice and wide-brimmed cowboy hat — scored a couple of modest Nashville hits, befriended Johnny Cash and recorded his own “Hello I’m Not Johnny Cash” live at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. He gigged as many as 300 nights a year back in the ‘80s but in August, he’s got only 15 dates booked.

Linton will celebrate his 85th birthday Sunday at Crooners in Fridley with his band, the Cotton Kings, and, of course, his wife, Pam Linton. In a recent phone interview, she sometimes had to repeat the questions because her husband admits he’s a bit hard of hearing these days. Here are excerpts.

Q: What can we expect at your 85th birthday celebration?

A: I open with “Ghost Riders in the Sky” because I learned that back in 1950, ‘51. I didn’t do it very well then. I do genres from folk to rock ‘n’ roll to cowboy to a little of everything. We do a couple of Johnny Cash numbers and I, of course, do my song “Cotton King,” which did pretty well for us back in the ‘60s. Pam will be doing several songs she does. We do “Hot Rod Lincoln” with quite a bit of humorous dialogue. My favorite song in country music is “Singin’ the Blues.” My favorite song is “Begin the Beguine.” I first heard it in 1950 on a record by Artie Shaw. We do some patriotic songs. I have a new CD from last year. Songs that I remember my mother and dad singing when we’d drive down gravel roads in South Dakota on Sunday afternoon in a 1936 Plymouth. We didn’t have a radio so they sang. It’s called “Sunday Drives With Mom and Dad.”

Q: Is it still true that you’ve never missed a gig in all your years of performing?

A: That’s still true. We’ve done a lot of things to get to those gigs. Plus I’ve had injuries and sicknesses but we always did the show. Even if I’m under the weather a bit or got a sore throat or voice problem — I’ve been onstage with my hand in a cast — no matter what ailment or things that have happened, I never walk onstage and say “I have a bit of laryngitis.” People don’t come there to feel sorry for you; they want to see a show. I’m not a great singer and certainly not a great guitar player, but I’m a fairly good entertainer.

Q: You’ve got quite the sense of humor as evidenced by songs like “Santa Got a DWI” and “You Men Are All Alike.” Where does your sense of humor come from?

A: My parents were always saying little funny things at times. You don’t have to tell a lot of jokes. The truth is sometimes funnier than anything.

Q: What inspired you to write “Santa Got a DWI”?

A: That’s true. We played in a little town called Fulda. We used to do a Christmas show in about 25 towns in the Midwest. They had a Santa Claus they wanted me to have in the show. He’d never been Santa before but they got him a suit. He had to have quite a bit of encouragement to be a Santa and he took that in the form of several libations. He did an all-right job of being Santa, giving out gifts and that. And he left shortly after that and the next morning I was wondering if he made it home OK. Wouldn’t that be something if Santa got a DWI? I sat down and wrote the whole song in about 15 minutes.

Q: What song have you sung the most over the years?

A: I’ve done “Cotton King” just about every show since it was released. Probably Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” or “Folsom Prison Blues.” I learned that in 1956. I discovered that my mother didn’t want her 16-year-old son singing songs about shooting people and going to jail. Sometimes I leave that verse out. I personally don’t like “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” Sometimes that line rubs me the wrong way. I wrote a song back in the ‘90s — “We Need a Lot More Guitars and a Lot Less Guns.” It’s not anti-gun, it’s anti-violence.

Q: Please tell the story of how you got a pair of Johnny Cash’s boots.

A: We were at the South Dakota State Fair. I think it was 1976. I opened for him. I was sitting out front watching his show. All of a sudden he called me onstage and said, “Sherwin, these boots feel kind of tight for me.” He took his boots off and said, “Try ‘em on, Sherwin. How do they fit?” I said, “I could never fill your shoes, Johnny.” He said, “Yes, you can.” He signed them afterward. I still have them.

Q: Tell me the story about seeing Bob Dylan in his Dinkytown coffeehouse days.

A: I did actually meet Bob Dylan before he was Bob Dylan. After we got done playing at the Flame in downtown Minneapolis in ‘59 or ‘60, we’d go over to the University [of Minnesota] and go to the Scholar. They were a coffeehouse. Different people would get up and sing. I didn’t know he was Bob Dylan; he was just Bob. He was not the most popular singer there. There were singers with kind of cultured folk singer voices singing old English ballads. Here comes Bob Dylan singing Roy Acuff songs. A couple years later, I was in Minot, N.D., playing a club and I went downtown to a record store and I see this album “Bob Dylan.” How did he get on Columbia [Records]? So I bought the record. And every other release he had I could get my hands on. I recorded “Girl From the North Country” and “Boots of Spanish Leather” back in the early ‘60s.

Q: Do you consider yourself a South Dakotan, Minnesotan or both?

A: I still call South Dakota home. I own some property out there. I think it’s 6 by 8 [feet]. You get that? I’ve lived in Minnesota since 1958. I love Minnesota. Being a resident here is a good thing for me. I love going back to my home state. I love the wide open prairie spaces. That’s where I geographically feel at home. I’m fortunate to have two states that claim me: South Dakota claims I’m from Minnesota, and Minnesota claims I’m from South Dakota.