By MATT REED
ASAP

RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  ''Folsom Prison Blues'' ends and the audience is chanting: ''Country is dead. Country is dead. Country is dead.''

Lead singer Matt Litton. Skip Rowland/Associated Press

There are at least three of them at the Black Cash and the Bad Trips concert, big and long-haired. They're standing a few feet in front of the stage and leading the cheer.

It may sound ominous, but it's a sign that country music is very much alive here.

Black Cash's fans are the types who love country music and its roots, but hate what country has become. Which puts Black Cash in the odd position of being a tribute band -- mostly covering Johnny Cash songs -- that's all about authenticity.

''Everybody has always agreed -- we are not ever going to imitate and try to be impersonators,'' says Matt Litton, the band's co-founder and lead singer. ''I'm never going to walk up on stage with a black tasseled suede coat and Western tie and the wavy pompadour. I'm not going to try to look like Johnny Cash. I'm not going to try to act like Johnny Cash.''

What Litton, guitarist John Porter and Black Cash's four other members want to do is revive the brand of country music that goes back to Hank Williams, before pop country and Garth Brooks came along.

They wear black on stage -- as Johnny Cash once did -- and they play Cash's ''Sunday Morning Coming Down'' and ''Wanted Man,'' as well as Hank Williams Jr.'s ''Country Boy Can Survive.'' They have tour dates up and down the East Coast.

Hundreds jammed a Richmond music club for one recent show, eventually draining the club's draft beer. John Porter strummed the guitar in a ''boom-chicka-boom''-style -- similar to the way Luther Perkins once played -- and Litton sang Cash's songs with a deep and distinctive voice.

If there's a label to be placed on the way Black Cash plays Johnny Cash's music, Litton says, it's alt-country -- country music with a rock influence. The band was founded three years ago. After years of playing in local punk bands, Litton and guitarist John Porter wanted something different.

''I've been in lots of original bands over the years, and it's always been a real fight to fill a room, especially in Richmond,'' Litton says.

But they brought in a crowd at their first show in Richmond in 2004 -- months after Cash's death. Since last fall, when they hired Richmond-based Tammy Brackett as their publicist and booker, Black Cash have played clubs and venues most every weekend.

College-age kids, 60-year-olds, bikers and professionals come to the shows. People have shown up dressed like Cash and his late wife, June Carter Cash, Brackett says.

The ultimate goal, Litton says, is for everyone to quit their day jobs and tour full-time.

''Every now and then, I'll wonder whether I really want to play in a cover band,'' he says. ''But we've been told many times that people appreciate that we're not turning it into punk rock or metal, or trying to imitate him. We're just adding our own flavor to it.''

The three big guys next to the stage seemed to agree. The band first thought the ''Country is dead'' chant was heckling, but later realized it was a compliment.

The chant, Litton says, has become a rallying cry.

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asap contributor Matt Reed is an AP reporter in Richmond.

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