CD REVIEW: Roseanne Cash finds her musical roots in ‘The List’

By Diana Nollen

The List” is a sublime collection of country standards Johnny Cash was horrified to discover his daughter Rosanne didn't know.

Her beautiful vocals and tender arrangements float straight up to heaven where her extended Cash and Carter clan is no doubt applauding.

This was a labor of love 35 years in the making.

Cash explains that she hit the road with her famous father the day after her high school graduation. During long bus rides in that summer of 1973, her dad started talking about songs Rosanne didn't know.

Worried that she was losing her country heritage to the pop and rock realm, he jotted down “100 Essential Country Songs” she needed to know.

She took a dozen of those titles and recorded them for her first installment of “The List.” Let's hope more collections follow.

The titles are standards, but the arrangements are not. Even the oldest folk songs sound new under her slightly breathy vocals and the wonderful instrumentals mostly provided by her producer-husband, John Leventhal.

Her daughter Chelsea Crowell adds harmony on my favorite cut, the folky “500 Miles,” while a host of luminaries lend their voices to other tracks. Bruce Springsteen helps ride the “Sea of Heartbreak,” Elvis Costello joins for a spirited “Heartbreak by the Numbers,” Wilco's Jeff Tweedy helps tell the tale of “Long Black Veil” and Rufus Wainwright adds some grit to Merle Haggard's “Silver Wings.”

The music covers a wide range of emotion and styles, buoyed by organ, dobro guitar, fiddles, brush snare drums, walking bass, occasional horns and reeds.

The result is a melting pot as rich, strong and colorful as Cash's musical heritage.

FAST TAKEInformation: www.hancher.uiowa.edu/events/cash.html and www.rosannecash.com

Title: “The List”

Artist: Rosanne Cash

Label: Manhattan Records

Performance: Hancher presents “An Evening with Rosanne Cash,” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10 , Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington St., Iowa City

Tickets: Few seats available; $42 and $47 through Hancher Box Office, (319) 335-1160, 1-(800) HANCHER or www.hancher.uiowa.edu/tickets.html