Spotlight On: ROSANNE CASH
ABOUT this week’s podcast guest + radio hour featured interview:
When you think about the soundtrack of your own life, or even a chapter of your life, chances are it is a playlist made up of lots of songs by many different artists and bands. You’ll find the same when the tables are turned and artists are asked about music that shaped them and soundtracked their lives. But what is fascinating to consider is how sometimes albums in their own catalog tell their stories. Anniversaries are a perfect moment for reflecting on this. It is rare that an album anniversary also marks an anniversary of a romantic and creative partnership, as well as being an album of songs that document the beginning of that chapter. This is a huge part of what makes the 30th anniversary of Rosanne Cash's eighth album The Wheel so significant. As you are about to hear, The Wheel contains within it the incredibly romantic story of co-producers Rosanne Cash and her now-husband and creative partner - musician, producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and recording engineer John Leventhal - falling in love, and beginning a journey that continues to this day as partners in all things. It also holds all the complexity of that chapter in Rosanne’s life. It tells the tale of a woman experiencing rage and pain of leaving her first marriage, worry about her kids, parting ways from Nashville both literally and figuratively to live and work in New York City, disillusionment with a very sexist music industry, and in her mid-thirties, finding the courage and inner fire to rise from the ashes, and start anew. The daughter of the legendary Johnny Cash and his first wife Vivian, Rosanne has now been a treasured and much-lauded voice in music and the arts for 45 years and counting, as a multi-Grammy-winning songwriter, singer, composer, storyteller, producer, and best selling author. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Wheel, its newly expanded deluxe edition, and all it represents, I am thrilled to welcome back Rosanne Cash as this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight.
A condensed version of this interview is featured on the SHEROES Radio hour this week. Here’s what else you’ll hear:
New music from Björk and Rosalía
We celebrate Janelle Monáe’s birthday on Friday, December 1st.
Our Radio SHERO is Kari Hedlund of KAXE/KBXE Northern Community Radio in Minnesota.
Listen to the syndicated public radio SHEROES Radio hour, below: