Music lovers are in their seats this Friday, October 18, 2024 evening at Princeton, NJ’s McCarter Theatre Center anxiously awaiting a live concert by Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal.
One of music’s pre-eminent singer/songwriters, Rosanne Cash has scored 21 Top 40 country hits, including 11 #1 singles. Her landmark 2009 album, The List, won the Americana Music Album of the Year award and her 2015 release, The River and the Thread — a collaboration with her husband, musician John Leventhal — garnered three Grammy Awards.
John Leventhal produced Shawn Colvin’s Grammy-winning album, Steady On, and arranged and played multiple instruments on Marc Cohn’s 1991 hit, “Walking in Memphis.” He has also worked with a who’s who of world-class artists including Willie Nelson, Bruce Hornsby, Dolly Parton, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, Donald Fagan, and more.
Cash’s and Leventhal’s latest release is the 30th Anniversary edition of Cash’s critically acclaimed 1993 recording, The Wheel.
Inside McCarter’s Richardson Auditorium, the lights dim and the crowd applauds as Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal take the stage. Opening with “Modern Blue,” a song from The River and the Thread, Cash strums her guitar as she sings in her gorgeous alto voice, “I keep my head down/I keep my eyes on you/It’s a big wide world with a million shades of modern blue.”
Cash is accompanied on this country rocker by Leventhal’s vocal harmony and acoustic guitar skills.
The crowd applauds, and Cash responds, “Thank you, I have very fond memories of this hall,” before introducing her next number, “The Sunken Lands.” On this country ballad based on her family history, Cash sings with fiery emotion, “The children cry, the work never ends,” as the music builds in intensity and guitars cry out as Leventhal and Cash play side by side.
Cash acknowledges, “We haven’t done this song in awhile,” as the duo slides into “Dreams are Not My Home,” an uptempo folk-rocker which features Leventhal rendering a hammer-on guitar solo. Cash follows up by recalling, “We made an album 30 years ago called The Wheel and something happened during the recording of that album because we’ve been married 29 years.” After Cash confesses, “I started writing these songs about him and he was clueless that they were about him,” Leventhal quips, “Remains so,” making the audience chuckle.
Cash puts down her guitar to sing the gentle folk-rocker, “Tears Falling Down,” accompanied by Leventhal who simultaneously plays a bass line, chords, and melody on his guitar to the amazement of the crowd. Then, accompanied by Leventhal’s masterful finger strumming, Cash’s rich alto encircles the audience on “The Wheel,” as she sings, “And the wheel goes round and round/And the flame in our souls will never burn out.”
The crowd hoots and hollers, and Cash talks about her album, The List — a collection of 12 tunes from a list of 100 that her father, Johnny Cash, gave her when she was 18 years old to expand her knowledge of country music. On “Long Black Veil,” Cash has the audience hanging on her every word as she hauntingly sings, “Ten years ago on a cold dark night/Someone was killed ‘neath the town hall lights/There were few at the scene, but they all agreed/That the slayer who ran looked a lot like me.”
Announcing, “Here’s one more song from The List,” Cash further acknowledges that it was a number she recorded with New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen. Referring to his guitar foot pedal, Leventhal jokes, “I have to put my ‘Boss’ switch on here,” as the couple launches into a rockin’ version of Don Gibson’s “Sea of Heartbreak” where they harmonize together on the tune’s catchy chorus.
Dedicating her next selection to a Princeton professor in the audience, Cash sparkles on an unplugged cover version of Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit, “Ode to Billy Joe.” After Cash spins her tale crooning the song’s verses and well known “Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge” refrain, Leventhal improvises on the coda and ultimately loosens his low E guitar string more than an octave, allowing it to ever-so-slowly slide down, creating the perfect ending to this classic country pop hit.
Cash confesses, “We went to that bridge and it was haunting,” before announcing, “This is from a whole other kind of songbook which is equally important.” Here, Cash and Leventhal present an acoustic rendition of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “And Your Bird Can Sing,” where Cash handles the lead and Leventhal joins her singing harmony on the chorus while deftly accompanying her on the guitar.
Cash talks about her and Leventhal’s new record label which not only released the 30th Anniversary recording of The Wheel but also recently dropped Leventhal’s debut solo album which, Cash jokes, “only took 70 years” to create. Here, the two perform a cut from that recording entitled “That’s All I Know About Arkansas” where after opening with an impressive hammer-on guitar intro, Leventhal and Cash perform the story song in perfect harmony.
Cash recalls, “I wrote this next song when I was 23 years old and I’ve been singing it for 45 years,” before sailing into her 1981 #1 country hit, “Blue Moon with Heartache.” Leventhal and Cash play guitars together as Cash sings with feeling on this melancholy number which tugs at the heartstrings.
The crowd cheers, and Cash snaps her fingers to Leventhal’s guitar playing on a soulful arrangement of another selection from The River and the Thread, “A Feather’s Not a Bird.” Crooning, “A feather’s not a bird/The rain is not the sea/A stone is not a mountain/But a river runs through me,” Cash gives a wonderfully bluesy vocal performance on this driving Americana number.
Cash tells a story about how Leventhal and her ex-husband, Rodney Crowell, wrote a melody together which Rosanne once asked if she could use for herself but was informed, “No, it’s for Emmylou Harris.” Eventually, when Harris didn’t use the melody, Cash employed it in writing her own narrative ballad about two of her Civil War ancestors. Featuring a Johnny Cash-style country guitar accompaniment, Rosanne cries, “Though the storm clouds gather/Let the union be made whole,” on this solemn piece entitled “When the Master Calls the Roll.”
Emphasizing, “We all say it every day — let the nation be made whole,” Cash insists, “It’s possible. We can do it. I so believe in us,” prior to segueing into her interpretation of Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On.” As Leventhal plays a slinky walking bass along with chords, Cash croons in her sultry voice, “I’ve told you baby from time to time/But you just wouldn’t listen or pay me no mind,” on this bluesy number. Cash responds, “Give it up for John Leventhal!” after her husband renders a twangy blues guitar solo which elicits avid cheers and applause.
Launching into Cash’s first #1 country hit, 1981’s “Seven Year Ache.” Cash sings with feeling, “Tell me you’re trying to cure a seven-year ache/See what else your old heart can take,” as Cash and Leventhal strum acoustic guitars on this appealing country-rocker.
The crowd responds with a standing ovation and the couple takes a bow before returning for an encore where Cash announces, “We’ll send you off with a Bob Dylan song.” Sliding into “Farewell Angeline,” Leventhal accompanies Cash on the grand piano as she looks up as if gazing at the sky singing, “I must go where it’s quiet.” At the conclusion, the crowd stands cheering and Cash offers a fond “Goodnight, my friends” as she and Leventhal take leave of the stage.
As concertgoers exit the auditorium, several share their thoughts about tonight’s performance by Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal. Comments Joy from Mount Laurel, “I thought it was a wonderful show! I love Rosanne and I love John — they’re wonderful musicians — and I loved hearing all the stories behind the songs as well as the stories within the songs,” prior to adding, “Rosanne has a beautiful voice and John’s guitar skills are spectacular, too!”
Declares Linda from Hopewell Township, “I thought it was amazing! I knew I loved Rosanne — her voice is just gorgeous and she’s an incredible storyteller and songwriter — but I didn’t realize what an amazing musician John is — his guitar playing skills are fantastic and he even played the piano at the end.”
Carolyn from Havertown, PA remarks, “My husband follows Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal and has seen them perform before, but this is the first time I’ve seen them and I’m totally amazed! They’re so witty and funny, I can’t say enough about them — they are so enjoyable and wonderful and Rosanne’s voice is just angelic.”
Lastly, John from Philadelphia claims, “It was an outstanding show! I’ve never seen Rosanne do an acoustic show before and the duality of having Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal performing on stage together was amazing,” prior to insisting, “It just couldn’t have been any better!”
To learn more about Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal, please go to rosannecash.com. For info on great upcoming programming at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center — including The Hot Sardines on November 2, Randall Goosby’s Renaissance Quartet on November 21, and Lucinda Williams and her Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets Show on November 22 — please go to mccarter.org.
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