Crossed one off the bucket list this week...
We saw Rosanne Cash live in concert on Monday, and she did not disappoint.
The singer-songwriter defines music category labels, having started with country in the 70s before going pop in the 90s and more folk/Americana in recent years, winning 3 Grammy awards this February for her most recent album The River & The Thread.
The daughter of country legend Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash is known for country hits like Seven Year Ache and Tennessee Flat Top Box, and also delivered lesser known pop albums in the 90s, including one of my all-time favourite albums of any genre, The Wheel; she has had a resurgence lately with The List (country classics inspired by her father) and the southern-themed The River & The Thread.
Cash has also written several books including a terrific autobiography Composed.
Her show Monday was about musicianship not spectacle; the first half of the show was with Cash and her five-man ensemble performing the new album in its entirety, in sequence, which worked beautifully as it ties together as a diary of travels in the south, with musical meditations on family and history and faith and country and blues and the strangeness of the south.
The second half of the show was a sampling of her hits, plus a sparse beautiful cover of Ode To Billy Joe (she talks about its setting at the Tallahatchie Bridge when introducing her current music).
With her rich voice and playful personality, Cash is a treat to see live as she tells stories and links the songs together into a tapestry of her life. I recommend her tour highly... and if you can't see her, check out her music especially The Wheel or The List.
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