Perhaps for some people, finding out that Rosanne Cash
is a writer who sings is like finding out that Joni Mitchell is a painter
who sings. But for those who know how talents cross-fertilize, we can
only thrill with admiration at women like this.
Cash's release in 1996 of a collection of short stories,
"Bodies of Water," is no surprise: the strong prose is the
work of one of the best lyricists alive, a passionate and intelligent
woman whose sense of self is arguably her best ally. "I've always
been a voracious reader, but I think [writing is] who I am. I always
knew I wanted to be a writer. I didn't necessarily want to be a performer.
That came later. I had to grow into that."
Historically, Rosanne Cash is the product of opportunity,
talent, and her deep intelligence and sensitivity.
As the daughter of Johnny Cash (who in 1969 outsold the
Beatles), she came to associate fame with self-destruction. After high
school she toured with him for two years. She then traveled in Europe
alone before studying creative writing in an otherwise soul-deadening
Nashville university.
She says, "I didn't finish college. I went to Vanderbilt.
I went for one miserable year. I don't think I ever felt so alone in
my life. It was awful. I have never felt so unattractive, either. It
was just awful. But I was majoring in creative writing and I had a WONDERFUL
professor. I think I went there so I could connect with this man, Walter
Sullivan. [After traveling] I came back and went to Vanderbilt. It made
it harder. I was 21 in a class of 18-year olds."
By 1979, in her early twenties, she had released her
first album, "Right or Wrong," and was on her way to eleven
Number One hits on the country charts. A creative and romantic collaboration
with her husband, musician Rodney Crowell, produced three daughters
and some best-selling music. 1985's "Rhythm and Romance" was
almost completely Cash's own material, and she won a Grammy for "I
Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me."
Her next album, "King's Record Shop" launched
four Number One hits, unprecedented for a female artist, as well as
earning her Billboard's "Top Singles Artist" award for 1988.
While 1990's "Interiors" earned four stars
from Rolling Stone, and brought Cash a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary
Folk album, Nashville didn't respond with open arms. "The beat
of a different drummer" isn't necessarily welcome in a town where
they traditionally clap on the downbeat. Cash's songs, deeply personal
and revealing of life's turmoil, didn't land with a bullet on the charts.
Her career and life were prey to the intense scrutiny
reserved for the famous: scavenging press focused on the intimate details
of her life, her divorce from Crowell, and timely comparisons to her
father's historical path with addiction. In 1993, from a new chrysalis
in New York City, she released "The Wheel," her first collaboration
with John Leventhal, whom she married. Leventhal, a musician/composer
and producer himself, has worked with Shawn Colvin and Patty Larkin,
among others.
Three albums have followed, including last year's "10
Song Demo." All mark Rosanne Cash as a woman of substance, a woman
who did not follow the path of entropy for the sake of satisfying anyone
else's expectations, a woman whose voice is one of the most authentic
of our times. It is a beautiful voice, a voice filled with softness
and strength, whether singing or speaking.
Cash recently returned from her seventh year teaching
songwriting at Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in upstate New
York, a place occasionally blurbed as the "Esalen for the East
coast."
At the Omega campus, art and spirituality are sisters in a larger family
of progressive themes; the residential workshops are held in a bucolic,
verdant setting. Some of her students retain contact with her, bespeaking
an accessible personality.
Her book, "Bodies of Water," was both critically
praised and satisfying; she alternated writing the stories with her
work on "Ten Song Demo." In fact, TSD is called a "sonic
companion" to Bodies of Water. The themes of her life: spiritual
growth, the willingness to express herself authentically, the ability
to keenly notice the details that comprise important vignettes in one's
life...all are well worded. Cash's clear sense of herself enables her
to play with alternate guises and personas, though clearly certain parts
are as autobiographical as an X-ray: labor pains, divorce, puberty ("I
remember thinking clearly, at eleven, that if I was expected to be so
mature at such a young age, that I did not wish to wear ankle socks
any more. They didn't go with my life.")
Her familiarity with the themes of the feminine come
from her own experience. One of four sisters, Rosanne Cash has three
daughters herself. "I love being the mother of daughters, it's
an honor to have this position in their lives. They're such special,
interesting girls."
Her upcoming performance is with long-time buddy John
Stewart, formerly of the Kingston Trio, and she is excited about the
chance to play with him. "John's been around for a long, long time.
He's a great writer. He's one of my closest friends. The only time we've
performed together is when I sat in on his shows I've gone to see him
at. It's really fun for us to get to play together on the same show."
She says, "I have quite a few projects on the stove.
I'm writing an album right now, and I'm nearly done. I'm writing prose
as well. I'll do a couple of the new [songs in Santa Cruz]."
At the end of one story in "Bodies of Water,"
a woman is drawn into uncustomary prayer while visiting a cathedral,
and Cash says, "at that moment of revelation, Elsa felt connected
to something greater than herself." Elsa's prayer ends: "The
second half [of my life] I will spend laughing." We wish the same
for Rosanne Cash, that we might share in her joy and the fruit from
her garden of plenty.