The River and the Thread

I first heard Rosanne Cash’s “Seven Year Itch”, which fit my acceptance of country as a young man from a small town with one radio station that had a music standard similar to the dive bar in The Blues Brothers: “We play both kinds of music here, Country & Western.” I had already swerved recklessly into punk, so my country had to be rockin’. Both Cash & Dwight Yoakam fit that mold more than Randy Travis or George Strait. However, I lost touch with Cash until I heard her album, “The List”, which is her choice of songs from her dad’s 100 greatest songs list. However that album didn’t strike me the way “The River & the Thread” has. First of all, this isn’t just a Cash album, but a collaboration with her husband, John Leventhal, who has played nearly all the music and co-wrote the songs with Cash. His playing sounds so natural & spontaneous, that the production feels like a sit-in session in someone’s living room. The first song with its refrain of “a feather is not a bird, rain is not the sea, a stone is not a mountain, but a river runs through me”, has a raw beginning with a guitar playing four minor notes in a stepping pattern, but it is Cash’s voice of longing & the lyrics of wandering along the Mississippi that sets the tone for the whole album, of a region she loves & constantly travels, at least in her memory. See the rest at: http://jksmusicreviews.blogspot.com/2014/11/rosanne-cash-river-thread.html

I enjoyed this Music CD. I would recommend this CD for all.

To me this is Rosanne Cash's best album. Not a wasted cut on the album. Each track is a strong piece of music. It doesn't surprise me. Rosanne Cash has been at this a long time and she has much to sing about. If your a fan of Rosanne than this is the CD for you!

When I first listened to this album, I was immediately drawn to all of her other albums I hadn't listened to for some time. If I remember correctly, this is the first album she's released with original material in awhile. This is one of the best albums from her I can remember and I remember some very good ones. My absolute favorites on the album are the 1st, "A Feathers' Not a Bird" and the last one, "Money Road". And just about every thing in the middle is surely worthy of listening.

Anyway, I not only have this great new album of hers, but a desire to go thru her catalog again. I can't wait.

I don't listen to much country-based music, but Cash has composed a real tapestry here of blues/rock/country/gospel, and its magical.
Her songwriting is very, very strong & it perfectly suits her voice.
A couple of strong examples - in the title song, she notes, "it's never any highway when you're looking for the past (which, apparently, this album was - she was returning to the American South of her childhood)". "Sunken lands" (my particular favorite) evokes an entire world in a mere 17 lines...