Rosanne Cash – The List (Review) | Tha Good Life Reviews

May 24, 1973; Memphis, Tennessee about 5 PM, roughly $100 worth of birthday festivities into the day. A young beautiful girl is given a list by her father, this list consists of ‘100 essential country songs’ spanning from Bob Dylan to Jimmie Rodgers. This father’s name is Johnny Cash, yes ladies and gentleman, the man in black. And this young woman is of course Rosanne Cash, his eldest daughter.

This being Rosanne Cash comes out with her 12th studio album named The List, which consists of twelve of those songs her father gave her some thirty-seven years ago. This is a cover album, but personally that sells it short I think. Sure, she keeps faithful to the essential elements of the music, partly because most of it cannot be improved on. But where this album really shines is when Rosanne and her husband producer John Leventhal find something in a song that was always there, but nobody brought it out before.

The List hit stores October 6th, read below as Rosanne gives us a history lesson behind some of the songs.

Motherless Children

“Motherless Children” was the blues before it could even be called The Blues, cause guess what? It was before there was The Blues: a song that powerfully expressed the emotions of the blues but predates the codification of the twelve-bar blues form.

We don’t know who, if anyone wrote ‘Motherless Children’ but it has been recorded by innumerable artists including the Carter Family in 1929. Lesley Riddle, a black blues singer and guitarist, accompanied A.P. Carter on several of the latter’s song-collecting. Others such as Blind Willie Johnson, Eric Clapton, And the Steve Miller Band did renditions of the long lost melody in the past before Rosanne.

Sea of Heartbreak (Don Gibson)

In a tribute from the Country Music Hall of Fame, good ‘ol Stacey Wolfe wrote that Don Gibson was responsible for writing at least three of the most famous songs in country music history. Sea of Heartbreak was a big hit for Don Gibson, but the poppish beat was always at odds with the doleful lyrics. And now that she slowed it down (and added some killer back-up vocals from Bruce Springsteen), it really sounds like a song of heartbreak.

Take These Chains From My Heart

On September 23rd, 1952, “Take These Chains from My Heart” was the very last song ever recorded by the late, the great Hank Williams (may he rest in peace). “As the final note faded, Hank Williams’ recording career ended” wrote Collin Escott “Williams died January 1st, 1953. The song was released on April 24, 1953, and because old Hanks last number 1 hit on June 6th”. Rosanne, respecting a fellow member of her dad of the Country Music hall of fame recorded this song on ‘The List” and recorded it well.

Girl From The North Country (Bob Dylan)

When Bob Dylan was thinking about that girl, actually ya know what. I don’t think anyone knows just whom Bob Dylan had in mind when he wrote “Girl From The North Country” in late 1962:

If you’re travelin’ in the north country fair,

Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline,

Remember me to one who lives there,

For she once was a true love of mine…

One crazy notion is Echo Helstrom, Dylan’s High school sweetheart in Hibbing, Minn., when he was still Robert Zimmerman. Another of his possible women is Bonnie Beecher, the singer’s girlfriend during his short tenure at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who as peculiar as it is later became an actress and the paramour of Hugh Hephner… I mean Romney a.k.a Wavy Gravy of Woodstock Festival fame. Who knows, who cares? Yes of course I am a massive fan of Bob Dylan and my mother met him in person and got an autographed record…. But this article is about the rebirth of Johnny Cash and her new album.

Although Rosanne lacks the voice of Bob Dylan, it is not raspy enough if you want my opinion. She grasps his melodies and you can tell shes as much of a fan as my mother was.

Besides the Boss in “Sea of Heartbreak”, Rosanne gets some help from Elvis Costello, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright. Since there are still 88 songs left on that list from long ago, here’s to us all hoping that this is the first volume of many.

In this day and age, Rosanne Cash is less Johnny’s daughter and more her own woman, and a lovely one at that. As I mentioned this is her 12th studio album and she’s very well made that name for herself with the past eleven. The List shows no less of the eleven, what I love is it shows more cojones. A cover album of some of the best country songs of all time! Jesus Christ, come on now! Its almost blasphemy but you know what? She succeeds in my mind. And as for her guest stars, she couldn’t have chosen better unless she chose the original composers herself. Springsteen helped ‘Sea of Heartbreak’ become in my mind one of the top songs on the album. Then Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, and Rufus Wainwright! Magnificent cast at the least. Also a very notable song is the cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Girl from the north country’. Overall I think I’d mark this album a B+.

Tracklist:

1. “Miss the Mississippi and You”

2. “Motherless Children”

3. “Sea of Heartbreak” with Bruce Springsteen

4. “Take These Chains From My Heart”

5. “I’m Movin’ On”

6. “Heartaches by the Number” with Elvis Costello

7. “500 Miles”

8. “Long Black Veil” with Jeff Tweedy

9. “She’s Got You”

10. “Girl From the North Country”

11. “Silver Wings” with Rufus Wainwright

12. “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow”