Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Rosanne Cash

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip:

Rosanne Cash

In my own, personal, big gay church, there is a wing dedicated to Those of the Heart. These are the singers, songwriters and muses who have spent a lifetime capturing various aspects of the human condition. Frequently, due to the whims of the music industry, their lives were not always their own... but they persevered... ultimately remaining true to their roles as seers of the heart. One such soul?

Rosanne Cash.

Smart and articulate. Wary and self-possessed. Knowing.

If she had a chip on her shoulder, she only used it to forge new territory.

And if life is a field of landmines, she'd be the one to pick to guide you through it. 

She knows things. Born that way. Eyes open, recording the human experience and taking it to heart.

Back in the day, she was unlike anything country music had experienced before. And...

She was country music royalty. That meant something. And while she never relied upon it to further her career... she has always been very aware and respectful of her roots.

She was riding high... 11 #1 country hits.

And then, just like the rest of us... life hit hard. Several times. Heartache. Brain surgery. And loss. 

She came back from each stronger, utilizing her gifts as a songwriter to cope, comprehend and share what she'd learned.

Today, she's as vital and relevant as the day she stepped onto the scene. 

She's never been anything less than authentic... which is why hers is a flame which keeps burning.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic: Songwriting

"I wanted to be a songwriter. I didn't so much want to be a performer. I more grew into that just from being a songwriter."

"I wanted to be the writer in the room setting depth charges of feeling out the world with my language. You know, I had a very romantic idea about that. But I grew into being a performer."

"My voice just serves what I'm writing about. So to let all that go, I mean, bring the sensibilities of it actually to the song choices, but to just be the interpreter was incredibly liberating, really fun."

"The ephemeral nature of live performance is the part I love most - it's a monk's sand painting, carefully constructed, then wiped away in an instant."

"Sometimes the fragment of a conversation, the color of the sky, the image in a dream, has everything to do with where the song begins."

"I dream of songs. I dream they fall down through the centuries, from my distant ancestors, and come to me. I dream of lullabies and sea shanties and keening cries and rhythms and stories and backbeats."

"But there's nothing that gives me more thrill than when I'm writing and a couplet works. I find the right rhyme, or it's just perfect. There's nothing that exciting."

"Think about all of the families where the father is a doctor and the son is a doctor or generations of coal miners. Why did they go into that line of work? Because that's what they were taught. Or was it in their genes? It's not an either/or question. It's both. I was inclined in that way."

"I was sensitive to music and poetry, and it was around me growing up."

"I think that my sensitivity to music has actually deepened and expanded as I've gotten older. You add more life experience."

"Isn't that the goal, as you grow older? That you start reclaiming those parts of yourself you didn't recognize or didn't think were there all along?"

"Like Thornton Wilder said, time is not a river, but rather a landscape that you step in and out of. I've always found that true of creative work, and I've heard so many songwriters and writers in general say the same thing. When you're going into the realms of your self and trying to tap into the mystery of this creative source, linear time kind of falls away."

 

Seven Year Ache - Rosanne Cash

Second To No One - Rosanne Cash

The Walking Wounded - Rosanne Cash

And one last parting shot...

"As I started writing about loss and grief, I was taking what felt unmanageable and using my songwriting, my sense of poetry and discipline, to try and make it manageable."

"With time the unbearable becomes shocking, becomes sad, and finally becomes poignant."

"Loss is the great unifier, the terrible club to which we all eventually belong."