Customer Reviews
Strong But Mellow Voice
There is sometimes a dark side to her singing also which is why I like her singing. Rosanne Cash has always had a strong but mellow voice and always has had variations of emotion in every song. One of her best known songs, "Seven Year Ache", is a good dance tune and it shuffles right along throughout the whole song. The Beatles classic "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" is a good song as Rosanne does a fine job on it. The songs like "Blue Moon With Heartache", and "Black And White" really show a dark side to Rosanne's singing. "Hold On", "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me" and "Never Be You" show how Rosanne can put hurt in her music and you can really feel it when she sings the lyrics of her songs. The song "The Way We Make A Broken Heart" sounds like Cha Cha music and is probably a good song to dance to. Her father Johnny Cash had a hit with a song she recorded and she did not know he recorded it until she started to record it. It is "Tennessee Flat Top Box" and it sounds as good today as it did when her dad recorded it long ago. Like I said before Rosanne Cash has a strong but mellow voice but is pleasant to the listening audience. A Good CD for any Rosanne Cash Fan.
What A Collection
I always loved the song "Seven Year Ache" (1981) so when I found this cassette at a used bin one day in Couer d'Alene, Idaho I picked it up. A greatest hits package from the singer a lot of people forget about but one you should all go back and discover. At the time I was working at this school for mentally challenged adults and one class I was teaching was music, which amounted mostly to giving the clients a microphone and letting them go to town on a little karaoke machine. Well, I figured Roseanne Cash would be a good one to throw into the mix so I brought the tape and when "Seven Year Ache" started this woman, who did not speak, did not walk, did not really do much at all, took her cane, walked to the front of the room and mumbled her way through the song. It was the crowning achievement in my academic teaching career. I decided when I moved to LA, that woman should have that tape so she could sing anytime she felt the urge.
Finally, I found a discounted version of the album on CD as I had become quite fond of this little hits package - obviously including Roseanne's signature classic, it also contains "My Baby Thinks He's A Train," "Tennessee Flat Top Box", an acoustic guitar driven version of the Beatles' "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party", the pop influence "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me" and "Hold On" - these are all classic songs and after reviewing some information on Miss Cash (if you didn't know she is the daughter of Johnny), I found she is and for most of her career has been a critic's darling. After finding out about that I was on a rampage to pick up five of her best reviewed albums - Seven Year Ache, Interiors, King's Record Shop, Rhythm & Romance and the most recent brilliant beyond belief Black Cadillac - which could've been a bit of a downer as it talks about death since she lost her step mother, father and mother all in the same year but is instead pretty damn good apparently. As for the avid listener who just wants to check out what the fuss may be about I suggest this greatest hits. Full of her biggest hits in the first decade of her career, you'll figure out why she was a pioneer, pushing the Nashville boundaries before most of today's pop country stars were even born.
.
Elegant Heartbreak
And act like nothing happened to me, nothin' at all. "I ran into that heartache just like a wall. . . . . "
Blue Moon With Heartache
Rosanne Cash is to country music what Diana Krall is to jazz. Sometimes traditional, often elegant, and occasionally heartbreaking, her lyrics and vocals convey a depth of emotion we don't get to hear that often.
While her music the past decade has become even more refined and introspective, this compilation of her earlier hits has work which makes it an absolute must for those who love great music. Even the catchy melodies cannot mask the emotional insight of some of these songs.
Cuts such as "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me" and "The Way We Make a Broken Heart" are so great to listen to it may be the third or fourth time around before you start hearing the anguish of the words and the sadness just beneath the surface. Even fun songs such as The Beatles' "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" are tinged with melancholy and hurt in Cash's hands.
Tunes like "I Wonder" and "Black and White" show the direction Cash's music would eventually take beginning with her "Interiors" album. If I could pick one song to define what Rosanne Cash and her music are all about, however, I would pick "Blue Moon With Heartache. "
Anyone who has ever known heartbreak and shut down for a time in its wake will feel as though this were an anthem written and sung just for them in their darkest hour. It is one of the most beautiful songs about lost love and loneliness ever written or sung.
You don't have to love country music to enjoy Rosanne Cash. You only have to have a heart and love great music. If you are not familiar with this most gifted of female music artists you are urged to start here and move forward to Cash's newer and ever interesting work. A must have.
. You can see a complete list of all Rosanne Cash discography, or go back to the Rosanne Cash tabs
|
