Rosanne Cash - The List - Music & Performance - CD

Album features Cashs contemporary interpretations of songs from a list of essential country songs passed on to her by her legendary father SPECIAL GUESTS include BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, ELVIS COSTELLO, JEFF TWEEDY, RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

After the dark and chilling themes of 2006's 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, it's immediately clear that she has instead found a more measured place to stand, and it's 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 she's 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 father's passions, only now, they've become his daughter's treasures, as well. It's an affirming story, but that's all it would be if Cash didn't 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 Cash's hands, and she doesn't 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. There's so much to take comfort in here, including her fine rendering of Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country," a nice turn at Harlan Howard's "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 Hampton's "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 won't 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 -- it's 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. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

Performer	Rosanne Cash
Music genre	Country
Music release type	Album
Media format	CD
Original release date	2009-01-01
Language	English
Number of tracks	12
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Track listing	Miss the Mississippi and You, Motherless Children, Sea of Heartbreak (Feat. Bruce Springsteen), Take These Chains from My Heart, I'm Movin', Heartaches By the Number (Feat. Elvis Costello), 500 Miles, Long Black Veil (Feat. Jeff Tweedy), She's Got You, Girl from the North Country, Silver Wings (Feat. Rufus Wainwright), Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow
Record label	Manhattan Records
Target audience	Adult
Composer	John Leventhal
Songwriter	Various Artists
Music producer	John Leventhal, Rick DePofi
Number in series	1
Occasion	All Occasion
Track name	Miss the Mississippi and You, Motherless Children, Sea of Heartbreak, Take These Chains from My Heart, I'm Movin' On, Heartaches by the Number, 500 Miles, Long Black Veil, She's Got You, Girl from the North Country, Silver Wings, Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow
Duration	40.19 min
Digital audio file format	CD
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N