Rosanne Cash | ||
| Allmusic Biography : The history of popular music is littered with the careers of the children of famous artists, performers who manage to carve out some small measure of success based far less on talent than on the recognition that their famous names afford them. Perhaps no greater exception to this trend was Rosanne Cash, the daughter of Johnny Cash, whose idiosyncratic and innovative music made her one of the preeminent singer/songwriters of her day. While Cashs best-known work fell under the broad heading of "country," there was always an intelligence in Cashs material and a soulful tone to her vocals that set her apart from her peers, and she was never afraid of using rock and pop flavors in her arrangements. Released in 1981, Seven Year Ache was a commercial and critical breakthrough for Cash that also defied the rules of how a commercial country record should sound, and on 1987s Kings Record Shop, she explored a more traditional approach that still reflected her musical personality. As Cash put greater emphasis on her songwriting, her work became more introspective and her country leanings began to fade, as evidenced by 1996s 10 Song Demo, and 2006s Black Cadillac and 2009s The List were the work of an artist exploring her personal and musical heritage while expressing herself in a personal, stylistically ambitious manner. Born May 24, 1955, to her father and his first wife, Vivian Liberto, Rosanne was raised by her mother in Southern California after her parents separated in the early 60s. She was largely uninfluenced by her fathers music until she joined his road show following her graduation from high school; over a three-year period, she was promoted from handling the tours laundry duties to performing, first as a backup singer and then as an infrequent soloist. Still, Cash remained unsure about choosing a career in music, and took some acting classes; not wishing to succeed solely on the basis of her familys influence, she also worked as a secretary in London and traveled extensively abroad. After releasing an eponymously titled solo record -- later disavowed -- in Germany in 1978, Cash signed with Columbia Records, and began performing with Texas singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell, who produced three songs for her American debut, 1979s Right or Wrong. The record featured three Top 25 hits, including "No Memories Hangin Round," a duet with Bobby Bare. The same year, she and Crowell also married. Cash issued her commercial breakthrough, Seven Year Ache, in 1981; not only did the album yield three number one singles, the title track even crossed over into the Top 30 on Billboards pop chart. However, the follow-up, 1982s Somewhere in the Stars, was a rush job, recorded during Cashs pregnancy. While failing to repeat Seven Year Aches success, it did produce two more Top Ten singles, "Aint No Money" and "I Wonder." After a three-year hiatus, Cash returned with her most significant artistic statement yet in Rhythm & Romance, a deft fusion of country and pop that won wide acclaim from both camps. The record earned her two more number ones, "I Dont Know Why You Dont Want Me" (co-written with Crowell) and a cover of Tom Pettys "Never Be You." In 1987, she issued Kings Record Shop, a meditation on country music traditions that generated four successive number one hits in John Hiatts "The Way We Make a Broken Heart," "Tennessee Flat Top Box" (a hit for her father in 1961), "If You Change Your Mind," and John Stewarts "Runaway Train." Also hitting number one was "Its Such a Small World," a duet with Crowell from his Diamonds & Dirt LP; not surprisingly, she was named Billboards Top Singles Artist in 1988. The next year, Cash assembled the retrospective Hits 1979-1989; one of the records few new songs, a cover of the Beatles "I Dont Want to Spoil the Party," pushed the consecutive number ones streak to five. By 1990, her marriage to Crowell was beginning to dissolve; Interiors, an essay on the couples relationship, was released the following year, and while the record was the subject of great critical acclaim, it was a commercial failure that generated only one Top 40 hit, "What We Really Want." In 1991, Cash and Crowell divorced; The Wheel, released in 1993, was an unflinchingly confessional examination of the marriages failure that ranked as her most musically diverse effort to date. After a three-year hiatus, Cash returned with a vengeance in 1996; not only did she publish her first book, a short-story collection titled Bodies of Water, but she also issued her first release on Capitol Records, 10 Song Demo, an 11-cut collection of stark home recordings released with minimal studio gloss. In 2003, Cash returned with Rules of Travel, an album five years in the making and her first full-fledged studio release since The Wheel. Sony reissued Interiors, Kings Record Shop, and Seven Year Ache in 2005, as well as the greatest-hits collection Blue Moons and Broken Hearts: The Anthology 1979-1995. Cash returned to the studio that same year, releasing Black Cadillac in January of 2006. In late 2007 Cash announced that she had been diagnosed with Chiari malformation, and was due to have brain surgery. After successful treatment for the condition, her slow route to recovery -- which included periods of being confined to her bed, as well as a fair amount of time being assisted in relearning certain patterns of speech -- led to a late-2008 return to the studio and the stage. Her subsequent project, The List, which appeared in 2009, featured songs from a personal list her father gave her when she turned 18 of what he considered the 100 most essential American songs, and the result was both a personal and a testimonial statement. Another hiatus from album preparation followed, and in 2010 she published the acclaimed memoir Composed before founding and hosting the Johnny Cash Music Festival in 2011, in order to raise money for the restoration of her fathers childhood home in Arkansas. Next, her 2012 song "Land of Dreams" was used in a worldwide campaign to promote the American tourist industry, before 2013 brought sessions for her first album of original material in eight years. That album, The River & the Thread, was released in early 2014. For 2018s She Remembers Everything, Cash worked with three different producers in sessions cut in three different cities -- John Leventhal in New York, New York, Tucker Martine in Portland, Oregon, and Joe Henry in Los Angeles, California. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 19 Title: Right or Wrong Released: 1979 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Right or Wrong (03:30) 2 Take Me, Take Me (03:38) 3 Man Smart, Woman Smarter (03:01) 4 This Has Happened Before (03:59) 5 Baby, Better Start Turnin’ Em Down (04:11) 6 No Memories Hangin’ Round (03:27) 7 Couldnt Do Nothin Right (04:53) 8 Seeings Believing (03:31) 9 Big River (02:46) 10 Anybodys Darlin (Anything but Mine) (05:01) |
| Right or Wrong : Allmusic album Review : On her debut American release (shed done a record in Germany that she now disowns), Rosanne Cash may not have shaken the money tree or the Billboard charts, but she and husband/producer/collaborator Rodney Crowell began to change the face of contemporary country music forever. Recorded in L.A. and not Nash Vegas, Right or Wrong still utilized talent synonymous with Music City, but the sound that took country and merged it with the rock and pop styles of the day was a winning formula. Crowell and Cash made the song selections while Rodney called in Emmylou Harriss band (of which he was an alumnus) and some up and comers and created a sonic palette that accented the brave new world of stripped-down mixes and songs that came from the left field of country or pop (the European version of the album featured a Lennon/McCartney tune). Here are nods to the past and heritage in her fathers "Big River," a couple of outlaw tunes from Keith Sykes (the title track and "Take Me, Take Me"), as well as the stunning ballad "Couldnt Do Nothing Right" by Karen Brooks and Gary P. Nunn. Jerry Jeff Walker recorded a hell of a version in the early 70s, but the crooning sorrow and ache in the grain of Cashs voice and the faux Caribbean rhythm behind a pedal steel-driven melody line make it an entirely different song. Speaking of voice, Cash is most comfortable singing her own searing ballads such as "This Has Happened Before," Crowells "No Memories Hanging Round," "Seeings Believing," and "Anybodys Darlin." But Crowells "Baby, Start Turnin Em Down" is perhaps the strongest track on the album as it combines a restless country shuffle, a rockers minor key blues riff, and a deliberate nod to Marvin Gayes "Heard It Through the Grapevine" and Motown. Right or Wrong only got to number 42 on the Billboard chart, but it did make radio take notice that something new was about to happen, and on Seven Year Ache, the follow-up to this fine album, the floodgates opened. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 19 Title: Seven Year Ache Released: 1981 Tracks: 12 Duration: 40:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Rainin (02:54) 2 Seven Year Ache (03:19) 3 Blue Moon With Heartache (04:29) 4 What Kinda Girl? (02:49) 5 You Dont Have Very Far to Go (02:36) 6 My Baby Thinks He’s a Train (03:14) 7 Only Human (04:02) 8 Where Will the Words Come From? (02:46) 9 Hometown Blues (02:58) 10 I Cant Resist (03:30) 11 The Feeling (04:25) 12 Seven Year Ache (live) (03:24) |
| Seven Year Ache : Allmusic album Review : The bottom line is that Rosanne Cashs masterpiece Seven Year Ache paved the way for Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, and then some. Proclaimed by Cash and her husband/producer/collaborator, Rodney Crowell, as "punktry," the album adds an entirely new twist on the Nashville sound. Perhaps it is because this is L.A. country and reflects the cocaine bliss in the sound of the era as well as Fleetwood Macs Tusk does. Utilizing everything from synthesizers and rock arrangements to pop ballad-styled charts and plenty of attitude, Seven Year Ache yielded three number one singles and songs by rock musicians such as Tom Petty and singer/songwriters like Keith Sykes and Steve Forbert. Of the singles, Cash penned two; the title track, which is a sorrowful indictment of her husbands philandering ways, and the shattering ballad "Blue Moon With Heartache." The third, the smash "My Baby Thinks Hes a Train," was written by Asleep at the Wheels Leroy Preston. Musically, the band included many of the same players from the Right or Wrong sessions, with the emerging vocal talent of former Pure Prairie League member Vince Gill. Forberts "What Kinda Girl" is almost rockabilly in its shuffling intensity and punk bravado. It dares the listener to define the protagonist just to shatter the preconception. Theres also a nod to tradition here in Cashs beautifully updated read of the Merle Haggard/Red Simpson nugget "You Dont Have Very Far to Go," complete with whinnying pedal steels and a honky tonk backbeat. In "My Baby Thinks Hes a Train," Cash and Crowell very consciously offer a new generation interpretation of dad Johnnys sound. This rocks harder yet is smooth as silk and full of that desolate want Johnny offered in his delivery. But unlike her fathers, this isnt a forlorn yearning want, its a pissed off anthemic want. For the ambulance chasers, this record with its songs of infidelity and broken promises may indeed be the first crack in a marriage and collaboration that ended a decade later. The tempo borrows the old Tennessee Three rhythm, but sped up into the stratosphere, with a shifting Western swing line near the refrain. Over 20 years after it was first issued, Seven Year Ache sounds as fresh and revolutionary as it did when it was issued. Any album that stands that test of time in a field like country deserves to be regarded as a classic. Yes, this is the one that changed everything. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 19 Title: Somewhere in the Stars Released: 1982 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:27 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Aint No Money (03:28) 2 Down on Love (03:29) 3 I Wonder (03:05) 4 Oh, Yes I Can (03:12) 5 Looking for a Corner (04:51) 6 It Hasn’t Happened Yet (03:20) 7 Thats How I Got to Memphis (02:24) 8 Third Rate Romance (03:36) 9 I Look for Love (03:30) 10 Somewhere in the Stars (03:32) |
| Somewhere in the Stars : Allmusic album Review : Somewhere in the Stars followed by one year the wildly successful Seven Year Ache, Rosanne Cashs breakthrough record. Once again with husband Rodney Crowell in the producers chair and acting as a full collaborator, Cash pushed the Nash Vegas envelope to the breaking point for the time. A listen to Shania Twains Come on Over and Up! will point, in a winding manner, back to Somewhere in the Stars. Here are guitars ringing through with influences from Dire Straits to Graham Parker & the Rumour. Give a listen to Susanna Clarks "Oh, Yes I Can," and listen to Albert Lees Mark Knopfler cop. Interestingly, Cash, while writing a great deal during this period, only recorded one of her own songs and co-wrote another with Crowell. The feel has British new wave, country, and L.A. rock blended into a seamless whole. Listen to the chug and tug of "Aint No Money," written by Crowell, that opens the album. Linda Ronstadt in her prime could have cut this, but only Cash could bring the solid country gutbucket pout in her delivery. The horn charts on "It Hasnt Happened Yet," a John Hiatt composition, are deep rooted in the Memphis soul tradition of Stax. Given Cashs voice, though, the track comes off at odds with traditions that have little in common except for being heartfelt articulations of the unspeakable. But the longing in Cashs voice stands at odds with the normally reserved slickness of Nash Vegas productions. Tom T. Halls "Thats How I Got to Memphis" feels out of place here, with its slim production and relatively straight country feel, but Cash doesnt skimp on her vocal; its believable if not overly inspired, and her read of the song is true to Halls -- and the appearance of Johnny Cash on the last verse adds depth and mystery. The most angular track on the album is "I Look for Love," also by Hiatt, which seems like it was written after hearing Joe Jackson for the first time. With its odd lead line and funked-up bass, it feels like the track from outer space here, but in the grain of Cashs deeply passionate delivery it fits right in. The set closes with the title track. In its intimacy and shimmering surfaces, it points directly at records like Interiors and The Wheel that would come a decade later, though its a love song, not a dark paean to something lost. As a follow-up to a smash album, Somewhere in the Stars was more than worthy and stands the test of time as a pillar in Cashs catalog. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 19 Title: Rhythm and Romance Released: 1985 Tracks: 10 Duration: 33:58 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Hold On (03:36) 2 I Dont Know Why You Dont Want Me (03:16) 3 Never Be You (03:23) 4 Second to No One (03:43) 5 Halfway House (04:27) 6 Pink Bedroom (03:11) 7 Never Alone (03:39) 8 My Old Man (02:51) 9 Never Gonna Hurt (03:05) 10 Closing Time (02:47) |
 | Album: 5 of 19 Title: Kings Record Shop Released: 1987 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:43 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Rosie Strike Back (03:31) 2 The Way We Make a Broken Heart (03:54) 3 If You Change Your Mind (03:21) 4 The Real Me (04:25) 5 Somewhere Sometime (04:04) 6 Runaway Train (04:02) 7 Tennessee Flat Top Box (03:10) 8 I Dont Have to Crawl (04:35) 9 Green, Yellow and Red (03:41) 10 Why Dont You Quit Leaving Me Alone (03:58) |
| King's Record Shop : Allmusic album Review : Rosanne Cashs catalog on Columbia is nothing if not formidable. Her pioneering meld of country, rock & roll (with an emphasis on "rock"), folk, and even blues, her topical concerns (which went deeper than most songwriters who came before her in taking on the tough topics of life), and her insistence on working outside the Nashville box scored her a number of hits and blazed the trail for many women who came later. Kings Record Shop followed by two years her flirtation with the kind of pop coming out of England in droves, the radically underappreciated Rhythm & Romance. Kings Record Shop -- produced by her then-husband and longtime collaborator Rodney Crowell -- is a granite-solid collection of covers and originals that delve deeply into the traditions that informed her life and created her as an artist, while revealing the trouble in her marriage to Crowell. The opening track, Eliza Gilkysons "Rosie Strike Back," is a real feminist country anthem, and contains killer backing vocals from Patty Smyth (of Scandal) and Steve Winwood. Her read of John Hiatts "The Way We Make a Broken Heart" is the kind of torch and tang ballad that will stand the test of time simply for its gender-bending take on relationships. Her collaboration with Hank DeVito, "If You Change Your Mind," is a jangly folk-rock ballad that expresses romantic longing in the face of a wayward lover; in its choruses one hears need as well as generosity. "The Real Me," a song that offers the vulnerability, truth, and flaws of a life in the process of transformation, is a preview of the type of material that would appear on the nakedly revealing Interiors. And it just goes deeper, from her rollicking and rebellious rocker "Somewhere Sometime" to the stellar cover of John Stewarts heart-wrenching "Runaway Train" to the straight-ahead country of her father Johnnys "Tennessee Flat Top Box." With its faux soul R&B; chorus, Crowells "I Dont Have to Crawl" is as full of want, cracked-heart honesty, and determination to keep standing as anything in country music. Ultimately, Kings Record Shop is Rosanne Cashs classic, a work that transcends production and songwriting styles and the pop and country music of the time. | ||
 | Album: 6 of 19 Title: Hits 1979-1989 Released: 1989 Tracks: 12 Duration: 40:59 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Seven Year Ache (03:19) 2 I Dont Want to Spoil the Party (02:36) 3 Hold On (03:38) 4 Blue Moon With Heartache (04:30) 5 My Baby Thinks Hes a Train (03:16) 6 No Memories Hangin Around (03:26) 7 I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me (03:17) 8 I Wonder (03:05) 9 Never Be You (03:29) 10 The Way We Make a Broken Heart (03:56) 11 Tennessee Flat Top Box (03:10) 12 Black and White (03:14) |
| Hits 1979-1989 : Allmusic album Review : Rosanne Cash recorded many worthwhile albums in the years after Hits 1979-1989 was released, but this compilation covers the time when Cash was a country star and reliable hitmaker -- namely, the 80s. At only 12 tracks, the collection doesnt feature all of her hits, but it does contain what are arguably the cream of the crop -- "No Memories Hangin Around," "Seven Year Ache," "My Baby Thinks Hes a Train," "Blue Moon with Heartache," "I Wonder," "I Don t Know Why You Dont Want Me," "Never Be You," "Hold On," "The Way We Make a Broken Heart," "Tennessee Flat Top Box" and "I Dont Want to Spoil the Party." With a catalog as rich as Cashs, a compilation this brief can only skim the surface, but the end result is a terrifically engaging listen for the devoted and the curious alike. | ||
 | Album: 7 of 19 Title: Interiors Released: 1990 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:14 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 On the Inside (03:19) 2 Dance With the Tiger (03:47) 3 On the Surface (02:57) 4 Real Woman (04:01) 5 This World (03:30) 6 What We Really Want (03:29) 7 Mirror Image (03:18) 8 Land of Nightmares (02:28) 9 I Want a Cure (04:20) 10 Paralyzed (03:02) |
| Interiors : Allmusic album Review : On Rosanne Cashs final recording for Columbias Nashville division she pulled out all the stops. Already known for her unflinching honesty, she took it to its most poignant and searing extreme on Interiors. Cash produced the record herself and wrote or co-wrote all the material here. A country record its not, but that hardly matters. This is a pop record with teeth and ache and broken hearts strewn all over the place. In fact, Interiors has the feel of a battlefield emptied of everything but its ghosts. The album is a collection of ten songs linked thematically by the chronicling of the tension, dysfunction, and ultimate dissolution of Cashs marriage to Rodney Crowell caused by dishonesty, infidelity, substance abuse, and physical distance; and she owns her side of the street with courage without laying blame. Carefully wrought with subtle instrumentation surrounding her fearless yet wavering vocals. Acoustic guitars, pianos, brushed drums, an occasional organ, a bass almost hidden under layers of ethereal grace -- these are the musical trappings that frame Cashs voice as she sets about a task so seemingly painful its almost uncomfortable to listen to. Its as if the listener is granted a private audience with her heart and innermost thoughts. Everything is here: the disillusionment, the anger, the vain hope of reconciliation, and finally the acceptance and resignation that endings are a part of life and serve their purpose. While these ten tracks are virtually inseparable from one another, there are standouts such as "Dance With the Tiger" written with John Stewart, "Real Woman" written with Crowell, "Mirror Image," "I Want a Cure," and the harrowing closer, "Paralyzed," where Cash is accompanied only by a piano. Here she lets her current position be known, that seeing the end of this relationship leaves her in the clutches of being unable to move from the emotional space she is in. This album is full of a truth that most would rather not acknowledge, but it is morally and spiritually instructive in terms of its lyrical content, and musically it is her masterpiece. In fact, its proof that art can redeem what cannot be in human terms. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 19 Title: The Wheel Released: 1993-03-09 Tracks: 11 Duration: 44:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 The Wheel (04:20) 2 Seventh Avenue (05:14) 3 Change Partners (03:41) 4 Sleeping in Paris (04:09) 5 You Wont Let Me In (04:31) 6 From the Ashes (03:58) 7 The Truth About You (02:29) 8 Tears Falling Down (03:27) 9 Roses in the Fire (03:25) 10 Fire of the Newly Alive (04:28) 11 If Theres a God on My Side (04:51) |
| The Wheel : Allmusic album Review : Like the dark, cathartic Interiors, The Wheel is an introspective, soul-searching set of confessional songs revolving around love and relationships. While many of the themes and emotions of Interiors are repeated on The Wheel, Rosanne Cash hasnt repeated herself, either lyrically or musically. Working from the same combination of folk and country that has fueled her songwriting throughout her career, she has created an album of subtle, melodic grace that helps convey the deep feelings of her lyrics. Its an immaculately produced album, but that never detracts from the emotional core of Cashs music. | ||
 | Album: 9 of 19 Title: Retrospective Released: 1995 Tracks: 15 Duration: 58:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Our Little Angel (04:08) 2 On the Surface (02:56) 3 All Come True (05:20) 4 The Wheel (04:20) 5 Sleeping in Paris (04:07) 6 707 (03:34) 7 Runaway Train (04:01) 8 Im Only Sleeping (03:14) 9 It Hasn’t Happened Yet (03:20) 10 On the Inside (03:20) 11 What We Really Want (03:29) 12 I Count the Tears (03:29) 13 Pink Bedroom (03:13) 14 Seventh Avenue (05:14) 15 A Lover Is Forever (04:11) |
| Retrospective : Allmusic album Review : Retrospective is an odd overview of Rosanne Cashs later recordings for Columbia, featuring a combination of hits, album tracks, rarities, and new songs. Which means, the album does contain hits like the number one "Runaway Train," but it concentrates on the lesser-known material, whether it was the minor hit "On the Surface" or Elvis Costellos "Our Little Angel." Its a good compilation, but its a little unnecessary, since the albums it is culled from -- Interiors, The Wheel -- function better as individual albums, and dont lend themselves well to collections. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 19 Title: 10 Song Demo Released: 1996-04-02 Tracks: 11 Duration: 35:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Price of Temptation (02:13) 2 If I Were a Man (03:22) 3 The Summer I Read Collette (03:45) 4 Western Wall (03:02) 5 Bells & Roses (03:05) 6 List of Burdens (03:05) 7 Child of Steel (03:38) 8 Just Dont Talk About It (03:50) 9 I Want to Know (03:18) 10 Take My Body (03:56) 11 Mid-Air (02:39) |
| 10 Song Demo : Allmusic album Review : Despite its title, 10 Song Demo isnt really a demo tape, but it is what the title suggests -- a stripped-down, direct collection of songs (for the record, there are 11 songs, not ten). Conceptually, it is a brilliant way to signal that Rosanne Cash has severed ties with Nashville, as well as begun her contract with Capitol Records. However, the album doesnt completely work. Essentially, 10 Song Demo is an official statement from Cash that she is no longer strictly a country singer, but an all-around singer/songwriter. Of course, she has always bent the rules of country music, so this isnt a big departure as far as songwriting goes. Musically, however, the spare, simple arrangements lack all of the country and pop production flourishes that marked her last two albums. Though it initially sounds fine, there isnt much variation to the music, and her melodies are frequently uncompelling. That cant be said of her lyrics -- they are as cutting, emotional, and affecting as they have been, and they are the main reason for listening to 10 Song Demo. | ||
 | Album: 11 of 19 Title: Super Hits Released: 1998 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Seven Year Ache (03:19) 2 My Baby Thinks Hes a Train (03:16) 3 Blue Moon With Heartache (04:30) 4 I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me (03:17) 5 Never Be You (03:27) 6 The Way We Make a Broken Heart (03:56) 7 Tennessee Flat Top Box (03:10) 8 If You Change Your Mind (03:21) 9 Runaway Train (04:01) 10 I Dont Want to Spoil the Party (02:36) |
| Super Hits : Allmusic album Review : Included are ten of Rosanne Cashs biggest hits, from "Seven Year Ache," "The Way We Make a Broken Heart," and "Blue Moon with Heartache" to "Never Be You." Though there wouldve been plenty of room for additional hits, this disc isnt bad value-for-money at a cheap price. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 19 Title: Favorites Released: 2002 Tracks: 10 Duration: 32:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Tennessee Flat Top Box (03:10) 2 It Hasn’t Happened Yet (03:19) 3 Seven Year Ache (03:18) 4 Third Rate Romance (03:36) 5 Blue Moon With Heartache (04:29) 6 I Dont Know Why You Dont Want Me (03:18) 7 Thats How I Got to Memphis (02:24) 8 I Dont Want to Spoil the Party (02:36) 9 Big River (02:46) 10 My Baby Thinks Hes a Train (03:13) |
 | Album: 13 of 19 Title: Rules of Travel Released: 2003-03-25 Tracks: 11 Duration: 39:05 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Beautiful Pain (02:50) 2 44 Stories (03:19) 3 Ill Change for You (03:50) 4 Rules of Travel (03:54) 5 September When It Comes (03:40) 6 Hope Against Hope (03:56) 7 Will You Remember Me (02:41) 8 Three Steps Down (03:45) 9 Closer Than I Appear (03:38) 10 Western Wall (02:57) 11 Last Stop Before Home (04:31) |
| Rules of Travel : Allmusic album Review : At every level, Rules of Travel distinguishes itself. A latecomer to songwriting, Rosanne Cash delivers plenty of compelling material, fully comparable in quality to the albums two non-original cuts. She comes up with fresh and intriguing chord changes to end verses and choruses on the title track, and images whose rugged eloquence perfectly fits the early-morning mumble of Steve Earle on "Ill Change for You." On "September When It Comes," she switches to a more homespun, folkloric imagery that suits her fathers weathered, timeless rumble. The production values change very subtly according to what best suits each song, from the Wallflowers-oriented roots rock saunter of "Hope Against Hope" to the shadowy urban swing of "Will You Remember Me" to the stark acoustic setting of "Western Wall." Though her voice is hardly the most impressive instrument in country music, Cash knows how to compensate by using an understated approach to more quietly highlight the essence of a song. Given the quality of what she gives herself to work with on Rules of Travel, its a method that cant miss. | ||
 | Album: 14 of 19 Title: Blue Moons and Broken Hearts: The Anthology 1979-1996 Released: 2005-07-12 Tracks: 21 Duration: 1:16:01 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Right or Wrong (03:21) 2 No Memories Hangin round (03:24) 3 Anybodys Darlin (Anything but Mine) (05:02) 4 Seven Year Ache (03:18) 5 My Baby Thinks Hes a Train (03:15) 6 Blue Moon With Heartache (04:30) 7 Aint No Money (03:28) 8 I Wonder (03:04) 9 I Dont Know Why You Dont Want Me (03:19) 10 Never Be You (03:29) 11 The Way We Make a Broken Heart (03:56) 12 Tennessee Flat Top Box (03:12) 13 Runaway Train (04:02) 14 I Dont Want to Spoil the Party (02:37) 15 If You Change Your Mind (03:22) 16 Its Such a Small World (03:21) 17 Dance With the Tiger (03:49) 18 What We Really Want (03:31) 19 Sleeping in Paris (04:07) 20 River (04:19) 21 I Count the Tears (03:25) |
 | Album: 15 of 19 Title: Black Cadillac Released: 2006-01-24 Tracks: 13 Duration: 46:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Black Cadillac (03:45) 2 Radio Operator (03:22) 3 I Was Watching You (04:01) 4 Burn Down This Town (03:10) 5 God Is in the Roses (04:07) 6 House on the Lake (03:31) 7 The World Unseen (05:13) 8 Like Fugitives (03:40) 9 Dreams Are Not My Home (03:40) 10 Like a Wave (03:25) 11 World Without Sound (03:42) 12 The Good Intent (03:44) 13 0:71 (01:11) |
| Black Cadillac : Allmusic album Review : In the 22 months that passed between the release of Rosanne Cashs wonderfully articulated Rules of Travel and Black Cadillac, she became an orphan. She lost her stepmother, June Carter Cash, in May of 2003; her father, Johnny, passed away in September of that same year; and in May of 2005, her mother, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, left this world as well. According to Cash, she began writing the songs for Black Cadillac in spring 2003 and ended in spring 2005. She began recording in November 2004. In other words, the album is the aural documentation of a process of grief, loss, and acceptance. And though her family was not the typical American family, this set is universal in its concepts. Certainly, it is an elegy; her fathers presence is everywhere here. It is also more than that; it is a reckoning, with memory, anger, love, joy, grief, pain, and resolve. The set opens with Johnnys disembodied voice calling her: "Rosanne, cmon." And the title track kicks into gear with a rumbling bass, a drum kit, and guitars emerging sparsely, surrounding her voice as she sings, "It was a black Cadillac/That drove you away...Now one of us gets to go to heaven/While one has to stay here in hell." The guitars explode into the mix, carrying the refrain, breaking open not only the tune, but her heart: "It was a black Cadillac/Like the one you used to drive/You were always rollin/But the wheels burnt up your life/Its a black heart of pain Im wearin/That suits me just fine/Cause there was nothin I could do for you/While you were still alive." These lyrics, the swirling six strings, a funky Fender Rhodes, the crashing of drums, and the distant, tinny horns quoting their place in "Ring of Fire," as the track ends, while it opens up the focus of the rest of the disc -- it becomes the mission statement for the heart-rendering that follows. Cash has a history of searing honesty; Interiors and The Wheel are just two examples. But Black Cadillac engages it in a different way. She disguises nothing. There are no extended painterly metaphors. These are open and direct songs without self-pity, without artifice. Writing about her parents, she expresses regret, but doesnt ask for more time; there is only the open, unbowed humility of gratitude and the weight and burden of history, and experience that results in wisdom. In "I Was Watching You," she recounts her history from youth to age 50 with Johnny, and amid the atmospheric arrangements, she states plaintively, "Long after life/There is love." Its the crack in the record that becomes the catalyst for her search for meaning after these experiences. There are rockers, too, such as "Burn This Town Down," which struts its country, rock, and roots simultaneously. Yet its all beside the point. From "God Is in the Roses," a nearly straight-up country tune that re-engages faith in God not as a concept, but as a place for the soul to find solace and rest in lifes most difficult occurrences, the question of faith looms large on Black Cadillac. In "World Without Sound" she states, "I wish I was a Christian/And knew what to believe/I could learn a lot of rules/To put my mind at ease." "Like Fugitives" indicts religion -- and a few other things -- to a slippery trip-hop rhythm track and expresses anger purely and simply. The rocking "Dreams Are Not My Home" feels like it were written for Dire Straits. The poetic lyric is offered authoritatively against acoustic and electric guitars. This tune is a manifesto. Its refrain digs against the illusions of the past and the many temptations to escape the difficult present: "I want to live in the real world/I want to act like a real girl/I want to know Im not alone/And that dreams are not my home." The bluesy country-rock in "House on the Lake" (referring to the old Cash home in Hendersonville, TN) evokes memory and the notion of place as a metaphor for passage and return. The guitars turn and wind around mandolin passages that underscore the determined declaration in Cashs voice. Cash has always been a pioneer and experimented freely. Since the release of 1990s Interiors, she has distanced herself -- on records -- from her familys country roots; in the process, shes carved a small niche in the nebulous adult alternative "genre." Black Cadillac shows the songwriter coming full circle without compromise. Her signature brand of country music has become part of her mix again. She has always employed rock and pop sounds even on her early outings. Cash embraces country here as a part of the sonic tapestry that includes every kind of music shes interested in. This set was recorded in Los Angeles with Bill Botrell (the odd numbered cuts) and in New York with husband-producer John Leventhal (the even numbered ones), and its an album that CMT and even country radio can warm to. (This is interesting, because in 2006 the music the genre consciously employs and strives to include is something Cash helped to pioneer as far back as the 1980s.) This album is extraordinary. It is brave, difficult, and honest. It is utterly moving and beautiful. Because it so successfully marries all of her strengths as a songwriter, singer, and musician, Black Cadillac may be the crowning achievement of her career thus far. | ||
 | Album: 16 of 19 Title: The List Released: 2009-10-02 Tracks: 12 Duration: 40:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Miss the Mississippi and You (03:12) 2 Motherless Children (03:06) 3 Sea of Heartbreak (03:06) 4 Take These Chains From My Heart (03:32) 5 I’m Movin’ On (03:45) 6 Heartaches by the Number (03:21) 7 500 Miles (03:04) 8 Long Black Veil (03:10) 9 She’s Got You (03:07) 10 Girl From the North Country (03:32) 11 Silver Wings (03:45) 12 Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow (03:33) |
| The List : Allmusic album Review : After the dark and chilling themes of 2006s Black Cadillac, which saw Rosanne Cash dealing with the deaths of her mother, Vivian Liberto, her father, Johnny Cash, and her stepmother, June Carter Cash -- all of whom passed within a two-year span -- one might assume that her next project would move into an even deeper level of bleakness, but with The List, its immediately clear that she has instead found a more measured place to stand, and its a lovely and redemptive outing that looks back to go forward. When Cash turned 18, her father, alarmed that his daughter only knew the songs that were getting played on the radio, gave her a list of what he considered 100 essential American songs; Cash kept that list, and now shes drawn on it for this wonderfully nuanced outing that brims with a kind of redemptive timelessness. The List is a renewal and a testament to life, and it belongs to her father as much as it belongs to her, a beautiful restatement of her fathers passions, only now, theyve become his daughters treasures, as well. Its an affirming story, but thats all it would be if Cash didnt sing her heart out here. And she does sing her heart out. The opener, a version of Jimmie Rodgers "Miss the Mississippi and You," is full of comfortable grace and sentiment, and Cash keeps that fine emotional tone throughout this set. Songs like the folk classic "500 Miles" feel at once both lovingly rendered and reborn for a new century in Cashs hands, and she doesnt update them so much as find redemption and solace in them, which in turn gives these songs a bright relevance, and because of the connection to her father and the list he gave to her, it also feels like a deep personal statement. Theres so much to take comfort in here, including her fine rendering of Bob Dylans "Girl from the North Country," a nice turn at Harlan Howards "Heartaches by the Number" (which features Elvis Costello), a calm but still spooky duet with Jeff Tweedy on the faux-murder ballad "Long Black Veil," and a duet with Bruce Springsteen on Hal David and Paul Hamptons "Sea of Heartbreak." Cash sings with a calm, measured authority, and all these the songs fit together with the same sort of refreshing resignation and care. Contemporary country radio probably wont touch anything here, since country these days seems to be more about name-checking than any actual preservation, but Cash is after something else again -- its about connecting with the past and carrying it forward as an act of personal faith. It has nothing to do with hats or belt buckles. | ||
 | Album: 17 of 19 Title: The Essential Rosanne Cash Released: 2011-05-24 Tracks: 36 Duration: 2:14:09 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Can I Still Believe in You (05:37) 2 Baby, Better Start Turnin’ Em Down (04:11) 3 No Memories Hangin’ Round (03:27) 4 Seven Year Ache (03:16) 5 Blue Moon With Heartache (04:30) 6 My Baby Thinks He’s a Train (03:14) 7 It Hasn’t Happened Yet (03:20) 8 I Wonder (03:05) 9 If It Weren’t for Him (03:33) 10 I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me (03:17) 11 Never Be You (03:27) 12 Hold On (03:38) 13 Runaway Train (04:01) 14 The Way We Make a Broken Heart (03:54) 15 If You Change Your Mind (03:21) 16 It’s Such a Small World (03:21) 17 Tennessee Flat Top Box (03:17) 18 I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party (02:36) 1 The Real Me (04:25) 2 On the Surface (02:56) 3 What We Really Want (03:29) 4 I Want a Cure (04:20) 5 Mirror Image (03:18) 6 The Wheel (04:20) 7 Seventh Avenue (05:14) 8 Sleeping in Paris (04:07) 9 A Lover Is Forever (live) (04:13) 10 Western Wall (03:02) 11 September When It Comes (03:40) 12 Black Cadillac (03:45) 13 House on the Lake (03:32) 14 The World Unseen (05:13) 15 The Good Intent (03:44) 16 500 Miles (03:04) 17 Sea of Heartbreak (03:06) 18 Sweet Memories (03:29) |
| The Essential Rosanne Cash : Allmusic album Review : In 1979, when Rosanne Cash cut Right or Wrong, her first album for Columbia Records, she sounded like a revelation: a vocalist with a strong and versatile instrument, a rockers nervy instincts, and a respect for country music traditions that didnt leave room for stodginess or the hollow sound of the emergent Nash Vegas era (not to mention an impressive lineage). Whats most remarkable is that Cash became so much more with the passage of time; she grew into one of the most interesting acts on the country charts in the 80s and ‘90s, bringing pop, rock, and country together in a way that actually brought out the strengths in each style rather than diluting them, and then matured into a first-rate songwriter whose literate and deeply personal work dealt with the hardest realities of life and love with intelligence, honesty, and heart. There have been a handful of collections that have skimmed the cream from Cashs seven albums for Columbia, recorded between 1979 and 1993, but The Essential Rosanne Cash, compiled by Cash and Gregg Geller, puts nearly all of them to shame. Essential Rosanne Cash lives up to its title by including one tune from her misbegotten 1978 debut album (released only in Germany and practically disowned by Cash) and nine from the four albums she released through Capitol/EMI between 1996 and 2009, making it the first Rosanne Cash album that offers a truly comprehensive look at her career to date. Moving from the smart and stylish contemporary country of her early albums to the meditations on family, loss, and music of her mature work, Essential is more than just a well-compiled greatest-hits album: it allows us to watch an artist evolve from strength to strength over the course of 36 songs, and its a fascinating and truly impressive collection from an artist who has never chosen to stay in the shadow of her father and his legendary music (though Johnny Cash does contribute vocals on one track, "September When It Comes"). The album also includes a thoughtful essay from Cash and another from her frequent collaborator (and former husband) Rodney Crowell. This is, quite simply, the best and most comprehensive Rosanne Cash collection released to date, and anyone looking for an introduction to her music or a well-chosen sampler of her catalog will be very well served by this set. | ||
 | Album: 18 of 19 Title: The River & The Thread Released: 2014-01-14 Tracks: 11 Duration: 38:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 A Feathers Not A Bird (03:18) 2 The Sunken Lands (02:56) 3 Ettas Tune (03:44) 4 Modern Blue (03:01) 5 Tell Heaven (02:40) 6 The Long Way Home (03:16) 7 World Of Strange Design (03:24) 8 Night School (03:47) 9 50,000 Watts (02:58) 10 When The Master Calls The Roll (05:06) 11 Money Road (04:00) |
| The River & The Thread : Allmusic album Review : Nearly eight years after Rosanne Cash last released a set of original songs, 2014s The River & the Thread finds her in a reflective mood, and just as 2009s The List saw her looking back with a set of classic songs recommended by her father, the late country legend Johnny Cash, The River & the Thread is dominated by thoughts and emotions that occurred to her as she was involved in a project to restore Johnnys boyhood home. This doesnt mean that Cash has returned to the spunky, country-accented sound of her most popular work -- this is still Rosanne Cash the mature and thoughtful singer/songwriter weve come to know since the late 90s, and the tone of this album is unfailingly literate. But though this music isnt country, its certainly Southern, and road trips from Alabama to Tennessee, visits to the Tallahatchie Bridge and Money Street, and vintage gospel music on the radio embroider these songs as Cash immerses herself in the places that were once close to home as if shes reuniting with long lost family. And two of the songs cut especially close to home -- "Ettas Tune" was written in memory of Marshall Grant, a longtime family friend and member of Johnny Cashs band, while "When the Master Calls the Roll" is a tale of love torn apart during the Civil War that Cash wrote in collaboration with her former husband Rodney Crowell and current spouse John Leventhal -- and they rank with the best material on the album, genuine and heartfelt, and written and performed with a genuine passion that never sinks into sentimental histrionics. Just as Cashs songs are crafted with a subtle intelligence, her vocals here are superb, getting to the heart of the lyrics without painting herself into a corner, and the production is rich but elegant and to the point. Rosanne Cash hasnt been especially prolific in the 21st century, and at under 40 minutes, she wasnt crafting an epic with The River & the Thread. But shes learned to make every word and every note count, and this album confirms once again that shes matured into a singular artist with the talent and the vision to make these stories of her travels in the South come to vivid and affecting life. | ||
 | Album: 19 of 19 Title: She Remembers Everything Released: 2018-11-02 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:48 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 The Only Thing Worth Fighting For (04:19) 2 The Undiscovered Country (05:20) 3 8 Gods of Harlem (03:54) 4 Rabbit Hole (04:07) 5 Crossing to Jerusalem (03:32) 6 Not Many Miles to Go (04:03) 7 Everyone but Me (03:37) 8 She Remembers Everything (03:37) 9 Particle and Wave (02:12) 10 My Least Favorite Life (04:03) |