Been a fan of Rosanne Cash ever since I picked up her “Retrospective” Best Of many, many years ago. Followed that up with the “Interiors” and “The Wheel” albums but then didn’t pick up on anything further until the superlative “The List” in 2009. Had never seen her live, so it was too good an opportunity to miss when we saw she was appearing at the Snape Proms – oddly, another Sunday night performance!
Accompanied by the producer, songwriter, musician (and husband), John Leventhal, she started off with a few tracks from her most recent release “The River And The Thread“, which in essence is a celebration of the American South, written by Cash and Leventhal. Based on what we heard, I’ve been more than remiss in not getting hold of the recording, something which I will put right later this week. She also dipped into The List (an album drawn from her father’s list of 100 essential country songs that he handed on to his daughter), including excellent versions of ‘Sea Of Heartbreak’ and ‘Movin’ On’, along with the superb ‘500 Miles’ as an encore. We also got songs from “Black Cadillac” and “Rules of Travel“, along with a very fine rendition of ‘Ode To Billy Joe’ – as well as a fine songwriter in her own right Cash is a wonderful interpreter of other material, hence the unqualified success of The List. Unless it passed me by, we didn’t get anything from Interiors or The Wheel, which was a disappointment but perhaps understandable, given the highly personal and specific nature of the material on both those albums.
It was just Rosanne on vocals and guitar, accompanied by Leventhal on lead guitar and occasional piano, this was as near a flawless performance as you’re ever likely to see and hear. Her voice seemed even stronger live than on record and has certainly added depth and maturity with age. Just a shame it was only about ninety minutes in total. Still, ninety minutes of true quality, great songs and wonderful playing and singing is not to be sniffed at.