SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The subject material of “The River and the Thread,” the latest release from Rosanne Cash, is right in the country superstar’s wheelhouse. The album is an ode to the South — a reflection on its people, its history and its culture. And Cash’s heartfelt lyrics and impassioned vocals effortlessly capture the spirit of the region, embodying its joys and tragedies.
The record is so genuine that many who attend Cash’s Feb. 3 performance at the South Orange Performing Arts Center may be surprised to learn that she actually did not grow up basking in the beauty of the Smoky Mountains or dreaming under the wide open skies of Texas. In fact, apart from being born in Memphis and living more than a decade in Nashville, the Grammy-winning eldest daughter of Johnny Cash actually has spent most of her life outside of Dixie. She grew up in California and today calls New York her home.
But as Cash learned while making “The River and the Thread,” that her ties to the South run deep.
“The interesting part was to realize how deeply connected I still was with the people and the characters of the South,” Cash told the News-Record in a Jan. 20 phone interview. “And it wasn’t a leap sonically and musically to go there because (the region) has informed everything I’ve always done. American roots music is essential to who I am and what I do.”
Yet Cash and her husband, John Leventhal, who co-wrote the songs and will perform with Cash at SOPAC, did not set out to write an album about the South. The idea came about after the singer and her family started making trips to the area to help with Arkansas State University’s restoration of her father’s boyhood home in Dyess, Ark. She said seeing her father’s humble beginnings was a “deeply moving” experience for her, describing it as simultaneously traveling back in time while also feeling like there was no time due to her everlasting love for her dad.
Cash wrote “The Sunken Lands” based on the homestead, and it’s one of several songs on the album inspired by her visits to the South. She said another came after she visited her friend, fashion designer Alabama Chanin, who taught her to sew. At one point Chanin told Cash “You have to love the thread,” and the line stayed with her. She liked it so much that she included it in the song “A Feather’s Not a Bird.”
“Etta’s Tune” was a third song Cash based on her time visiting the South, telling the story of the marriage between Marshall Grant — her father’s original bass player who died shortly after she visited him — and his wife Etta. Cash worked to get inside Grant’s head while writing the song and, she said, the creative process that resulted was quite exciting.
“In a way, I guess it’s like acting,” Cash said. “To try to deep dive into the character and (think) how would they say this and what would they think and what’s important to them and what moves them, what’s in their heart — it’s a great exercise.”
The Grants were far from the only “characters” Cash explored in “The River and The Thread.” The album features an eclectic cast covering the South’s rich history, from a New Deal-era farmer in Arkansas to a modern Alabama couple.
In “When the Master Calls the Roll,” Cash and her co-writers Leventhal and ex-husband Rodney Crowell tell the story of a woman widowed during the Civil War. The song had personal meaning for Cash, who has two ancestors, both named William Cash, one of whom fought for the Union and the other for the Confederacy. And she enjoyed writing it so much that she said she would even like to write a sequel examining what happens to the woman after the song ends.
All this creativity paid off at the 2015 Grammys, where Cash received awards for Best Americana Album for “The River and the Thread” as well as Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance for “A Feather’s Not a Bird.” It was not the first time the singer was recognized for her work — she had previously earned a Grammy in 1985 and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame later in 2015. But Cash said the awards were much appreciated.
“For it to be noticed in such a big way — it was incredibly gratifying,” Cash said. “I know other people my age who have been (performing) for as long as I have who do great work and don’t get that kind of notice. I feel really, really lucky that people did notice.”
Though she has certainly had a full career — including 11 No. 1 hit singles and three gold records — Cash has no intention of slowing down. She said she is currently writing songs for a new album, and she and Leventhal are also working on a musical. And she said that is just a sampling of what she would still like to accomplish.
“I’m always looking to what’s tomorrow and what’s next,” Cash said. “I’m not ready to retire yet.”
To order tickets for Cash’s Feb. 3 SOPAC concert, at which she will perform songs from “The River and the Thread” in addition to other favorites, call 973-313-2787 or visit http://www.sopacnow.org/rosanne-cash/.
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