As if the death of one parent weren’t debilitating enough.
Fate dealt Rosanne Cash the cruelest of hands in the years spanning May 2003 to May 2005, when she lost her father, Johnny Cash, her stepmother, June Carter Cash, and her mother, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin.
Cash mourned as anyone else would, taking time to herself and with her loved ones. She focused on the present by researching the past, looking into the Cash family genealogy – a book that had been a gift from her father, who “had it researched back to the 12th century,” she said. Armed with enough historical material and crude emotion to fill the Library of Congress, she then mourned as any other songwriter would.
“As I started writing about loss and grief, I was taking what felt unmanageable and using my songwriting, my sense of poetry and discipline, to try and make it manageable,” Cash said recently from her home in New York City. “But as I started writing about loss, I started writing about ancestry.
“And you think you’re writing about what’s gone but end up writing about what remains and what has lasted hundreds of years,” said Cash, who plays Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium tonight. “And it was good to feel myself in the middle of the story rather than the end of the story.”
All of Cash’s grief-stricken songwriting sessions resulted in “Black Cadillac,” a record of loss and remembrance released earlier this year in January. And while it’s a sad album with blood- red tones as deep as the unfurled rose adorning its cover, it’s obvious Cash’s heart and mind are in the right place.
This black Cadillac isn’t a harbinger of sorrow or a reminder of death. It’s a beacon of life, a celebration of existence.
“It’s not morbid,” Cash said. “It’s not a memorial service.
“And it’s absolutely not a tribute. The only tribute on the record is the final track, 71 seconds of silence. They were both 71 when they died.”
The CD is a potent individual statement. The music is as tight as fans have come to expect of Cash. Not quite alt-country, it’s more of a contemporary country blend that’s as smart and mature as it is curious and meandering, experimental even.
The record is full of direct call-outs to her departed loved ones, remembering them as she knew them but also poetically posing it all as a collective sigh, a universal exhale. Songs such as “Like Fugitives,” “House on the Lake” and the title track are obvious personal statements, but they’re also as relatable as anything else Cash has ever written.
“In my mind, they’re linked to particular people,” Cash said. “But I wouldn’t want to take that away from the listener, because the other half of the equation is the listener.”
While writing and recording the record was difficult – Cash fought with herself throughout the creation process, and she later recorded both in Los Angeles with Bill Botrell and New York with her husband, John Leventhal – bringing it to the stage has been the needed catharsis at the end of the journey.
“They’re starting to breathe and take on an extra dimension now when played live,” Cash said. “Writing and recording it was far more difficult than playing it live. Live is the antithesis of going to that solitary place to create it.”
Cash said “Black Cadillac” has been a needed part of her recovery. And fans are lucky she included them in the process, especially given her royal country lineage.
But people’s familiarity with her family – especially given the timing of “Walk the Line,” the Hollywood blockbuster biopic released in 2005 – also has been an obstacle for Cash.
“I didn’t anticipate how obsessed people would be with our back story, with the movie and everything,” she said. “It’s frustrating. And somewhat painful. I don’t want to keep rehashing my parents’ deaths.”
At the beginning of the interview, which took place in mid-July, Cash’s handlers requested that no questions be asked directly about her family or the film.
“The reason you get the little lecture before we talk,” Cash said, “is because at the end of every interview, I’m left with the feelings and you get to go home.” But news had just hit that required her comment.
Her father was back on the charts – way up there, too. “American 4: A Hundred Highways,” a tremendous but gasping effort from Johnny Cash and producer Rick Rubin, was released posthumously on July 4 and debuted on the charts at No.1 the following week.
It was his first No.1 since 1969’s “Johnny Cash at San Quentin.” And his daughter was beaming-proud that morning.
“I listened to the record yesterday for the first time, and I loved it,” she said. “I thought the reading of the Springsteen song was particularly genius. I sent Rick a note. I’m sure my dad is still enjoying his No.1s. He loved it, and I’m sure he still loves it.”
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
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Rosanne Cash
CONTEMPORARY COUNTRY|Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder; 8 p.m. tonight|$32-$40|
chautauqua.com or 303-440-7666
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5more
THE MINDERS It’s a bright guilty world indeed! This former Denver band, which released “It’s a Bright Guilty World” earlier this year on Future Farmer, will bring its infectious pop to the Larimer Lounge tonight. The band, now claiming Portland as its home, has history with the Elephant 6 collective – and that makes sense, given their effervescent sound. Tonight’s bonus is the excellent opening slate of The Maybellines, Breezy Porticos and Cowboy Curse.
CRACKER David Lowery and his buddies are coming back through town Saturday at the Gothic. But remember that Bob Schneider is no longer on this bill, so if that truly matters, refunds are available view TicketWeb.
DAVID WILCOX Another change: Wilcox canceled his Friday show at the Ogden, but Saturday’s gig is still on at Chautauqua Auditorium.
GALACTIC It’s rare you get to see big bands in small venues, but Saturday and Sunday at the Fox in Boulder will be special as Galactic – now accustomed to much larger stages and crowds – will play the intimate venue.
WOLF PARADE We love Canadian indie rock, and Wolf Parade is back Monday at the Fox (with Frog Eyes opening) to quench our thirst until they (and Arcade Fire and New Pornographers) release new records.
-Ricardo Baca
