Spinner

Rosanne Cash Keeps the Rest of 'The List' Private

When Rosanne Cash decided to go public with her father, Johnny Cash's list of 100 essential country songs, she didn't realize the intensity with which people would want to know the names of all of them. Johnny gave them to her as a gift when she was 18 as a way of educating her about what daddy did at the office.

Rosanne first revealed the list's existence while on tour supporting her 2006 album 'Black Cadillac.' Hounded by fans after virtually every show and prodded by her husband to do something with the list, Cash recorded a dozen of the tracks and has just released them this week on an album entitled, simply, 'The List.' And indeed, as was father Johnny's intention, the songs are essential country music selections. They're taken straight from the songbooks of the greats -- ranging from Merle Haggard to Jimmie Rodgers -- and Cash was careful to include certain indispensable style deviations including honky tonk and Delta blues.

But that still leaves 88 songs on paper that we don't know about, and Cash isn't ready to reveal the rest of them just yet -- she had a hard enough time choosing the first dozen. "As far as picking the songs we did, some of them were clearly not going to work," Cash tells Spinner. "They were too gender specific or they were too much of a period piece, and I couldn't do another version of 'This Land Is Your Land.' You know what I mean?"

Indeed. But now that a dozen are down and being passed around, that's 88 songs Cash still has to pull from and, luckily, she plans to continue the project. "That doesn't mean I'll stop writing," she says. After all, she's long since established herself as a top-selling and award-winning songwriter in her own right. But perhaps by sharing with us an important gift that her father gave to her at a young age, she is somehow honoring her private past while sharing music history with the world. After years of keeping it between her and her dad, she's finally ready. "In fact, a month ago I said to John [her husband], 'I want to start recording Volume 2 of 'The List," Cash admits. "And he said, 'Can we just get this one out first, please?"

He got his wish this week when 'The List' finally hit store shelves. Or, at least, its first dozen songs.

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Elisabeth Coon

Merle Haggard writes great songs too. Guess folks know that. I like "Out Among the Stars" and "Big City." Hey, Lyle Lovett too. How about "The Road to Encinada?" I looked it up in a Spanish dictionary and encinada means knowledge I think. I listened to that album when I was lying in a hospital bed. Lyle kept me company.

June 01 2011 at 1:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Elisabeth Coon

"Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine" by Tom T. Hall is a great song, I think. I would love to hear it again, by Roseanne Cash. I saw the Highwaymen several years ago. It was almost too much for me, like a holy visitation by Waylon, Kris, Willie and Johnny. I am a lucky person.

June 01 2011 at 12:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Grace Padgett

Went to see Johnny once and always did love him. No one will ever take his place. One of a kind !!!!

October 11 2009 at 8:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
fiona

I think that hit from was from 1967. DRUNK AGAIN BEFORE QUITIN TIME was Pat's 1966 No.1 single.

October 11 2009 at 8:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
fiona

I hope Pat C. Klein's 1966 hit " I Can't Stop Cryin' Since You Ran Out The Door and Got Hit By a Semi Doin' Sixty Down a One Way Street " is on the list.

October 11 2009 at 7:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joleea3

Tie, sorry your little mind is not big enough to reconize a great singer. I give a crap.

October 11 2009 at 7:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jerry


Have ordered the new CD of Rosanne's. I cant wait to hear it. Love her voice. It has a lot of her dad in it.

October 11 2009 at 7:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Slim Whitman

Johnny was a great American and had a fine sense of truly good songs.

October 11 2009 at 7:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
edko426

"When I was arrested I was dressed in black,,"
"Put me on the train and they took me back,,,"
"had no friends for to go my bail,,"
"they locked my lying carcass in the county jail,,""
(bump bump bump bump,,,,)

October 11 2009 at 6:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LIT

I loved Johnny Cash. I met him years ago at a concert he did with his wife in my home town. He was so awesome and kind. It was such a tragic loss when he and his wife, June, passed away.

October 11 2009 at 6:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply