Last week, my boyfriend and I decided to take a random late evening walk, and ended up in Pike Place Market. He noticed the Can-Can Kitchen and Cabaret, remembered it's somewhat of a venue, and wanted to check it out. The bartender informed us the show was about to start; the featured performer was a 15 year old Johnny Cash sound-alike.

Sure enough, this young kid comes up on stage with his acoustic guitar, and starts bellowing out a voice so remarkedly similar to Cash's, we thought at first they were playing a tape. It was completely eerie how much this young guy, named Vinny, sounded like the Man in Black, right down to the connontations of his voice on certain notes. He reproduced of course all the main hits, but despite his similarity, it was a bit strange seeing a kid sing "I took a shot of cocaine and shot my woman down." Besides the Cash covers, he did a cover of Lennon and U2. Of course, I had to ask him about original material, because the few songs he sang in his own voice revealed he has quite a good voice of his own. Unfortunately, he said it was "in the process." I told him to keep up the work on the original material.

For now, he can keep up that uncanny vocal resemblance to Johnny Cash. Don't believe me? According to the Can Can's myspace calendar which proclaims him as "Vinny the 15 Year Old Johnny Cash Prodigy!", he's a regular fixture there, meaning you can check him out for yourself every Tuesday evening.

Man, I wish every random walk ended some peculiar way…