Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal
Fox Tucson Theatre
Tucson, Arizona
March 24, 2023
As soon as Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal graced the stage at the Fox Theatre, the love in the sold-out crowd permeated the entire hall. This was Rosanne Cash’s third appearance at the theatre in recent years. Cash was in wonderful voice, and she had a lot of stories to tell. Leventhal’s acoustic guitar playing was magical and he retrieved more sounds from his instrument than seemed possible.
Cash and Leventhal have been spouses and musical collaborators for nearly 28 years. It has obviously worked for them and this show is evidence of their successful union. Cash spoke about how time is the most precious thing. “I feel it more now. John and I wrote the song, “Crossing to Jordan” about being in our long-term relationship. and Leventhal have been spouses and musical collaborators for nearly 28 years. It has obviously worked for them, and this show is evidence of their successful union. Cash spoke about how time is the most precious thing. “I feel it more now. John and I wrote the song, “Crossing to Jordan” about being in our long-term relationship.”
They had a warm and playful demenor throughout the evening. Cash’s bracelet periodically hit her guitar during the show. She quipped, “I forgot to take my bracelet off so it’s working as percussion.” Leventhal looked on in his stride.
Cash has a long history with T Bone Burnette and it has been very productive. She introduced the song “The Only Thing Worth Fighting For” with “Burnette was the musical supervisor for the HBO series, True Detective. The second season was about to start and Burnette asked me, ‘Will you write some lyrics about destruction?’ I said, ‘Yeah that’s in my wheel house.’ I wrote the lyrics and it ended up opening the second season. They sang it beautifully. I still haven’t seen the show. Way too violent for me.” The song was performed early in the set along with several songs from her Gammy winning album, The River and the Tread.
“The River and the Thread” is a song about a hero’s journey to the South.The song won us a couple of Grammys. The last time I won a Grammy before this was when Reagan was president. My Grammys seem to be on a 30 year cycle.”
“Sunken Lands” was a compelling song performed that was dedicated to her grandmother, Carrie Cash’s hard life in rural Arkansas. Cash writes about her Southern roots and it’s shameful history of lynching and segregation in the not too distant past. Cash and John journeyed as far down South through to Mississippi in preapartion for the album, The River and the Thread. “ The Tallahachee bridge is an haunting place. We threw a guitar pick off the bridge.”She sang Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe.”
Cash stated that her days of touring are coming to a close unless it is on special occasions. She spoke of one of her future endeavors, “John and I have been working on a musical for six years now. It looks like it will be staged. It’s very exciting. It’s the story of Norma Rae filmed in the 70s. It’s regarding a woman who works in a textile mill in North Carolina in the 1970s. It’s about union organizing. It’s really about a woman’s transformation.The song we wrote for the play is about a moment when she realizes that her life is not working and something has got to change. The song is called “Where is the Hurricane.” I am not playing Norma Rae. I have no interest in acting. Music is hard enough.”
“In 2010, I released an album called The List. The songs on the album are from an actual list my dad made for me when I was 18 years old on the back of a tour bus one day. He got out a legal pad and a sharpie and he wrote this list of songs off of the top of his head. Across the top of the page he wrote ‘100 essential country songs.’ He gave it to me and said ‘This is your education.’ I saved that list. In 2010, we took songs from that list and I made an album called The List. This song should be at the top of anyone’s list, “The Long Black Veil” was performed.
This was a very special evening with the fans giving the performers a standing ovation at the end. They returned to the stage for an encore of Dylan’s “I Shall be Released.” It really doesn’t get better than this
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