My new favorite CD is The List, a twelve-song album in which Roseanne Cash sings some of the songs that her father, Johnny Cash, wrote down for her in 1973 to help her more fully appreciate her heritage. While he sprinkled a few of his own songs in the list, those on the CD are from other songwriters whose songs touched him and influenced him.
As a long-time fan of Johnny Cash, I was interested in getting some insight into what he considered milestones in American music. As a fan of Roseanne Cash, I have to agree with her husband who told her for years that she should record some of the List as her voice was particularly well-suited to these types of songs. Here's a good NPR story about The List.
My favorite song so far is Sea of Heartbreak .Roseanne sings this Hal David and Paul Hampton song with Bruce Springsteen.
Here is Don Gibson doing the song, which was #1 in 1961.
And Johnny doing it:
And Jimmy Buffet:
I like Roseanne's the best and Johnny's second best.
My library hold on this has come through. I'm looking forward to listening to the whole thing--the Americana station played "I'm Moving On" yesterday.
ReplyDeleteRoseanne used to have a book bloggy portion to her website that I always enjoyed. But the last time I looked for it, it had disappeared.
SFP - "I'm Moving On" is also great! Love that bass :) I was listening to the CD in the car with two of my teenagers after going to see Wicked last Sunday, and my 17-year old daughter exclaimed "that's why I stopped listening to country music--it's always about heartbreak, or drinking, or trucks, or America." She has a point, but then she asked to borrow the CD when we got home....
ReplyDeleteI see you're also an Emmy Lou fan--I just downloaded from Amazon "In My Dreams" from the White Shoes album last week, which I never got on CD though I still have the LP, and I was feeling nostalgic. I loved White Shoes :)
I would have enjoyed taking a look at Roseanne's book blog. Too bad it's gone.