IF sometimes it’s hard to be a woman, just imagine if you’re the daughter of an American music titan – and said daughter has just released an album charting a pilgrimage to the roots of her dad.
Such is the challenging backdrop to this release from Roseanne Cash, daughter of the late and legendary Johnny Cash. Roseanne carries off the feat with style and assurance and no little aplomb.
Across the 14 tracks is a trek through American heartlands taking Cash to the impoverished Deep South “sunken lands” of her dad’s childhood.
At times it is almost like a travelogue encompassing evocative stopping-off points as Biloxi, Florence, Memphis, and even the Tallahatchie Bridge feted in Bobby Gentry’s Ode To Billy Joe.
The journey is worthy of attention as the lyrically gifted Cash, vocals sounding as pure and heartfelt as Rickie Lee Jones or Carly Simon, straddles country, blues and gospel with textured melodies partnered by fluid arrangements from her husband and collaborator John Leventhal.
The man in black would have been immensely proud.
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