Singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash at the Colonial

Submitted by Lesley Ann Beck on June 30, 2010 - 10:10pm

Classical Music

The Colonial Theatre

www.thecolonialtheatre.org

Pittsfield, Mass.

Rosanne Cash: The List

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) Award-winning singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash delivered a deeply satisfying concert of “essential” American songs last night at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, her rich alto voice perfectly suited to the traditional tunes, ranging from folk to country to the blues.

The songs from her latest album, The List, are culled from the one hundred essential country songs that no less an expert than her father, music legend Johnny Cash, wrote out by hand on a yellow legal pad, back in 1973. And all these years later, the songs are striking a chord with her audience.

The Colonial Theatre is a majestic house, but it’s also small enough for an intimate show: Rosanne Cash took the stage with her husband, producer, arranger, and expert guitar player John Leventhal, and just two acoustic guitars. She was in a black tunic with a ruffled black jacket and her “lucky boots,” he wore a black tee and jeans. But when they started to perform, her gorgeous voice and his accomplished guitar accompaniments filled the theater with music. She opened the concert with a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country,” beautifully done. Next came two songs that had been recorded by Johnny Cash: “Sea of Heartbreak” by Hal David and Paul Hampston; and a traditional arrangement of “Long Black Veil.”

The list of one hundred songs is wide-ranging, from American roots music, to old-time folk, to country, blues, and bluegrass. But Rosanne Cash introduced “Long Black Veil” by saying, “There is no American roots music without this song.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard it sung better.

Cash and Leventhal sound great together, and they tap their feet in unison to keep time. They changed the mood a bit by singing Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On,” with a driving blues accompaniment. Next was a Jimmie Rodgers classic, “Miss the Mississippi and You.”

Cash is friendly and easy on stage, after a lifetime of performing, she is clearly comfortable. She really owns these songs. They offered one more tune from The List, Harland Howard’s great “Heartaches by the Number.”

Switching gears, Cash picked up her guitar again and launched into “Black Cadillac,” one of her own songs, and a signature one for her. Then they did a song they wrote together, “Burn Down This Town.” The contemporary songs felt and sounded just right following the older tunes; it makes sense that hearing all those essential songs for so many years would inform her own writing.

Cash introduced a song from another of her albums, Interiors, next, but got distracted when she couldn’t tune her guitar. She said she can’t talk and tune at the same time, giving Leventhal an opening for some gentle teasing. Finally he went over to her side of the stage, stood behind her, and reached around to tune her guitar. It was a funny and a tender moment at the same time. The song was “What We Really Want,” another of her own compositions.

The next selection was from Black Cadillac, a wonderful song called “The World Unseen,” that uses the line “westward leading, still proceeding” in the refrain, taken from an old Christmas carol; it lends the song a poignancy and a sweetness. And then another from Black Cadillac, called “Dreams Are Not My Home.”

Cash then talked about her father for a moment; he didn’t put very many of his own songs on The List, she says, he was very modest. Cash rectifies the omission by singing a fun version of “Tennessee Flat Top Box,” with a clever guitar accompaniment from Leventhal.

And then she delivered my favorite moment in the concert. If there are one hundred songs on the list, she said, what would be the one hundred and first? And with that, they went into a phenomenal rendition of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Jo.” You know it’s a great song if forty years later people are still trying to figure out what they threw off the bridge, she said. She’s right: after all these years I found I still knew all the words. It was terrific.

Next they sang the oldest song on the list, the ballad “Motherless Children.” And then she asked the audience to choose her next-to-last song; people called out “500 Miles.” There’s a knack to performing these traditional tunes, a way to make them sound, if not fresh, then at least relevant, and Cash has the knack. She got me to listen to some of these very familiar songs in a new way.

They did the concert in one long set; performing from 7:30 to 9; she finished with a song she wrote, ‘Seven Year Ache.” After the standing ovation, they came back for a two-song encore. The first was “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me,” another one of Cash’s compositions: that didn’t prevent her from bobbling the lyrics, but she recovered very charmingly. The very last song of the evening was a clever surprise: “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” by Lerner and Loewe from the musical My Fair Lady. She dropped the Cockney accent, slowed the tempo, and sang it, with heart, over a guitar accompaniment. It was unexpected but very effective.

Rosanne Cash may sing these marvelous old songs so well because it’s in her genes; or just because they are great, great songs. Either way, it was a terrific concert.

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