Always Been There: Rosanne Cash, The List, and the Spirit of Southern Music

by Michael Streissguth

Overview

In 1973, Rosanne Cash's father gave her a list of 100 songs, many from the Southern tradition, that he felt a young musician had to know. Always Been There tells the inside story of the album that, more than thirty-five years later, resulted from "the list."

Based on original interviews conducted in the studio, at home in New York City, and on tour in Europe, Always Been There documents a pivotal episode in Rosanne Cash's long and fascinating career. As she, along with producer and husband John Leventhal, painstakingly reconstructs what songs made "the list" and why, we gain an unmatched understanding of a longer musican continuium that includes the Carter Family and other fabled names of the Southern pantheon and their influence on her music and writing. We also see how Leventhal's talents as an arranger and musician pair with Rosanne's searching vocal performances to make these old songs new again.

Always Been There tracks Rosanne Cash's singular and storied career from her early commercial hits with albums like King's Record Shop through her controversial split with Nashville tradition on albums like the mercurial Interiors to the sublime Black Cadillac. It paints an unforgettable portrait of Rosanne confronting music-making in the aftermath of serious brain surgery, her lifelong search for her legacy, and her unique creative partnerships.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306819261
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	12/15/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Michael Streissguth is one of the world's foremost authorities on Johnny Cash. He is a professor at Le Moyne College and lives in Syracuse, New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Chapter 1 Movin' On 1

Chapter 2 Sweet Memories 19

Chapter 3 Heartaches by the Number 39

Chapter 4 Sweeter Memories 59

Chapter 5 Big River 75

Chapter 6 The Willow and the Rose 93

Chapter 7 Miss the Mississippi and You 109

Chapter 8 Silver Wings 123

Chapter 9 Five Hundred Miles Away 137

Chapter 10 Take These Chains 155

Chapter 11 Girl in the North Country 169

Chapter 12 A Satisfied Mind 187

Notes 205

Bibliography 209

Photo Credits 213

Index 215

Editorial Reviews

Starred Review.

Author and music journalist Streissguth, having already written a biography of Johnny Cash (Johnny Cash: The Biography), joined Johnny's daughter Rosanne to document the creation of an album (and tour) that in many ways reflects the complicated relationship between daughter and legendary father. Having achieved musical success in her own right, Rosanne's project is based on a lost list of 100 songs that Johnny gave her at the beginning of her career, which he felt every young musician should know. In the process of reconstructing "the List," Rosanne and Streissguth explore Southern music, the family legacy, and Rosanne's memories of the Cashes and the Carters. Streissguth is a skillful biographer, investigating Rosanne's relationship with work and art as well as with her famous parents. Unfortunately for music enthusiasts, the actual "list" never materializes, but that doesn't stop it from giving this intimate, illuminating narrative a satisfying sense of history that should please any fan of modern American music.
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Publishers Weekly

WNTI- New Jersey online
“Always Been There moved me like few musical books that I have ever read.”

PublishersWeekly.com
“Streissguth is a skillful biographer…[An] intimate, illuminating narrative [with] a satisfying sense of history that should please any fan of modern American music.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution, 11/29/09
“[An] emotion-packed, behind-the-scenes account of the making of the album.”

Austin Chronicle, 12/4/09
An effortless read… An enticing view of an artist.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1/10/2010
“[A] thoughtful book…[A] portrait of a middle-aged woman coming to terms with a complicated legacy…Top-notch.

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