About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Rosanne Cash has one of the most beautiful voices in country music, a voice which is deeply unappreciated in the contemporary mainstream. The heartfelt emotional impact of this disc is a brilliant showcase for that voice, the songs touching, a little dark, and as pure as music can get. "Black Cadillac" is a masterpiece.



Pros

• "House on the Lake"
• "The World Unseen"
• "I'll Be Watching You"

Cons

• None.

Description

• Twelve new songs, all written by Rosanne (with co-writer John Leventhal on four).
• A magnificent book of poetry set to music, written from the heart.
• Recorded from November 2004 to June 2005, produced by Bill Bottrell and John Leventhal.

Guide Review - Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac

Rosanne Cash is a female singer who stands out from all the others, a true uncompromising artist with a vision that may at times be dark, but is always deeply real. The songs on "Black Cadillac" are obviously cathartic for her, written in the wake of the loss of three of her parents: father Johnny Cash, mother Vivian (Cash) Distin, and stepmother June Carter Cash. The emotions come across with each word, each phrase, with the power and strength of fine wine and the beauty of crystal.

Beginning with a scratchy, old recording of Johnny's distinctive voice saying, "Rosanne, now come on," and segueing into a rich opening song which, while deeply personal to Rosanne in dealing with the loss of her father, it speaks to anyone who has seen a loved one taken on that final ride, "it was a black Cadillac that drove you away." And with every song this theme is approached, each from a different angle, and each speaking to a different part of the soul.

The sorrow, the anger, the denial, and the hope; all these things that death can bring to those still living, as in "I Was Watching You," where she sings, "and all those years to prove how much I cared/ I didn't know it but you were always there/ ?til September when you slipped away/ in the middle of my life on the longest day."

Rosanne's travels through the darkest parts of her spirit and the most personal pains of her life do not make for easy or comfortable music; but it is beautiful, rich, heartbreakingly honest music.