ROSANNE
CASH’S BLACK CADILLAC TO BE RELEASED
JANUARY 24 BY CAPITOL RECORDS CASH CONFRONTS
LOSS AND LEGACY OF HER ICONIC FATHER, STEPMOTHER
AND MOTHER IN REAKTHROUGH ALBUM
Rosanne
Cash’s Black Cadillac, to
be released January 24 by Capitol Records,
is perhaps the most compelling release of
her distinguished career. She wrote the
twelve-song musical memoir over roughly
two years in which she lost her father Johnny
Cash, her stepmother June Carter Cash,
and her mother Vivian Liberto Cash Distin.
Yet Black Cadillac is remarkable
not just for the context in which it was
created, but for the defining achievement
it represents in the scope of Rosanne’s
own artistry and life. She describes the
album as “a personal history and an
overview of my ancestry,” and also
as “a fusion of songs, musicians,
and producers that was a dream and a dream
fulfilled at the same time.” With
Black Cadillac, Rosanne confronts
her family legacy as never before while
simultaneously pursuing her own bold creative
path with renewed commitment.
Though she is heir to such a rich lineage,
Rosanne has always been an artist of her
own time, following a thoroughly independent
vision from the outset of her career. She
has earned continued critical praise, GRAMMY
Awards and nominations, and eleven #1 singles
relying on her own singular voice and sound,
songwriting style and life experience. On
the new album, Rosanne presents herself
in her totality, seamlessly integrating
all of this with echoes of her forebears’
music and an explicit acknowledgment of
her place in the family line.
This balance extends to the recording and
innovative production of the album, which
incorporates her signature approach to folk-rock
and homegrown harmonies that recall her
more distant family heritage. For half of
the album’s tracks, Rosanne traveled
to her childhood hometown of Los Angeles
and worked with a new producer, Bill Bottrell
(Sheryl Crow, Shelby Lynne). She recorded
the other half with her husband and longtime
producer, John Leventhal (Shawn Colvin,
Joan Osborne) in New
York City, where they live. Keyboardist
Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers),
a longtime Cash collaborator, contributes
throughout.
Arguably, the strongest resemblance Rosanne
bears to her father lies in her willingness
to face complex emotional challenges head-on
and her ability to translate them into universally
accessible art—a talent tested in
the extreme by the circumstances underpinning
Black Cadillac. Over the course of the album,
Rosanne wrestles with the complexities of
mortality, loss, reminiscence and redemption.
The overall result is a well-rounded, life-affirming,
and hopeful set of songs full of concrete
narrative details and Rosanne’s emotionally
charged meditations on these topics. “I’ve
always found that songs can be postcards
from your future,” says Rosanne of
the album’s opening and title track,
which was written six weeks before her stepmother,
June Carter Cash, fell ill. “The Good
Intent” takes its name from the ship
that carried the first American Cash from
Scotland to New England in 1653. “House
on the Lake” is set in Johnny and
June’s Nashville home.
Prior to Capitol’s January 24 release
of Black Cadillac, Sony Legacy is issuing
expanded editions of Rosanne’s landmarks
Seven Year Ache (1981), King’s Record
Shop (1987) and Interiors (1990). These
reissues include a new collection, The Very
Best of Rosanne Cash. Black Cadillac follows
the GRAMMY-nominated Rules of Travel (Capitol,
2003), which features Johnny Cash’s
final duet with her, “September When
It Comes.”
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