I have been following the Cash and Carter families for over 50 years now. It started when I selected one of her father's 331/3 records--perhaps 'Ring of Fire'--from the Columbia Record Club's introductory offer of 10 records for a $1. That was the 60s.
I've now seen Rosanne four times, the first of which was in 2006 when she played Zankel Hall and during an encore related the story she told an acquaintance that no, she wasn't playing Carnegie Hall that night, she was in the their cellar. "There are many Saks Fifth Avenue stores, but only one Bergdorf's." Last night she made Bergdorf's.
Carnegie this season worked a four concert Perspectives Series around Rosanne and the music she knows best. She brought in a variety of musicians and artists who she accompanied a bit for shows. Last night was the fourth show in the series, in the main hall.
In 2006 Ms. Cash told us her son was bummed that Carlos Beltran had looked at a third strike that dropped the Mets from the playoff series against St. Louis. That Halloween a small boy came trick-or-treating to our door wearing a Beltran Mets jersey. I dropped some candy into his sack and looked at the mother and asked, "does he know what happened?" She said, "I know."
When Rosanne was introduced to the audience at that 2006 concert the MC told use she was turning the show over to one of New York's own. I winced. Not knowing more that the time, I said to myself, "what a thing to say, she's from Nashville." No, actually Memphis, by way of Southern California and decades in New York City.
If you look at a map of Tennessee you might realize it is surrounded by more adjacent states in the Union than any other, and Memphis is really right on top of Mississippi, perhaps the most Southern of all the states. Rosanne explained last night that her parents were southerners, and that now in her later years, she realizes where she comes from. Thus, she and her husband John Leventhal co-wrote and produced what became a three-Grammy Award winning album 'The River and the Thread' in 2014.
I saw what was really the first half of Rosanne's show last year at Adelphi University. Like any great artist, sketches are made and things are rehearsed. She takes the audience on what is really a guided tour of the South by presenting the songs in the sequence of the album, accompanied by a slide show projected on Carnegie's three wall panels behind her. The short footnotes that she provides between each song serve as a further guide. She does bring you up from the below-sea level home of her father in Arkansas with 'Five Cans of Paint' to a moonlit night in 'Night School.' Everything has been polished to reflect light, sun and moon.
The second half of her show was chock-a-block filled with some classics, and incredible guitar jamming. In 2006 she introduced 'Tennessee Flat Top Box', one of her father's songs by way of telling us it was her son's favorite. I'll guess it was one of her favorites growing up, because it has always been one of mine. Last night she played it again, explaining the men in the band had children in the audience that liked the song. And when her husband and guitarist Kevin Barry riffed on it loud and long enough to register a complaint from the subway, the entire audience were children again.
And when she introduced 'Girl from the North Country' as one of her father's song that he did with Dylan on the album 'Nashville Skyline' in 1969, I leaned over to my very adult daughter and told her "I have the vinyl to that album. When you find it, don't throw it out."
In 2006 Rosanne's surprise guest was Elvis Costello, another New Yorker who she bumped into at Balducci's grocery store and arranged to appear with her. Last night, it was Jeff Tweedy, who came out in a Paul Simon shirt and a Bob Dylan-like hat who captured your attention in the second half.
Years ago, perhaps 2003, my wife and I, sitting in very nearly in the same seats we were in last night, saw Emmylou Harris entertain us through an evening. The review in the NYT was glowing, and described Emmylou as the "high priestess."
Last night Emmylou was mentioned as the intended artist of a song Rosanne's husband and Rodney Crowell wrote, "When the Master Calls the Roll." Half a year went by, and Emmylou still hadn't recorded the song. Rosanne convinced her husband and Rodney that Emmylou was never going to record the song, and couldn't she re-work the lyrics with Rodney to tell the story of Civil War ancestors. Rosanne was acceded to, and reworked the song. It is a sad narrative, but my wife being Irish-American loves sad narratives. It choked up Rosanne when she was through, as she turned and looked at the 1860s photo of her distant relative in his Union Army uniform with his bride.
So, what's next for the Southern curator of Roots music and the Dali Lama of spirit? Music for a play she and her husband are working on, apparently. She sang a number from the play.
Early in Johnny Cash's career he liked to tell anyone who would listen that he knew a thousand songs. His daughter knows at least a thousand and one.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment