The List

A week or so ago, I picked up a Cowboys and Indians magazine outside the library in Jordan. Now you must know, I usually don't read this publication because of the complete dude-i-ness of it, but this one had Tom Selleck on the cover and I nearly swooned right there in the hall.  (But that's another post, altogether...)

The magazine was predictably Holly-weird with jewel-encrusted boots, two-billion dollar "rustic" Montana homes near Bozeman, and toothpick models that looked completely mad at having to wear all the western clothes until they could get a real job with Vogue magazine.  There WERE about 15 pictures of Tom Selleck, though, and that reduced the embarrassment of having it in my house! 

Tucked in the middle of all the nonsense was a review of an album that Roseanne Cash put out in 2009, called The List.  It turns out that at one point in her life, she was riding in the tour bus with her dad, Johnny Cash, and he mentioned a classic song that she'd never heard.  He tossed out another song and she didn't know that one either.  She says that her dad later sat down and wrote out a list of 100 essential country songs that he thought she should know.  Sadly, she can't find the list now, but the album is a compilation of some of those that were on it. 

The story alone piqued my interest, but there was also a mention of her cover of Sea of Heartbreak with Bruce Springsteen, of all people.  I went to the computer, to YouTube, to see if I could find the song and sure enough, there it was!  (If you click on the song title, above, you can listen to it, too.)

I couldn't stop listening.
I went to Amazon to find her MP3 album, checked out other tracks, and couldn't stop listening.

She puts her own spin on the classics, but does it while maintaining the integrity of the original song.  I was astonished that she would dare cover Patsy Cline's She's Got You...talk about iconic...but she did, and it was great.  Silver Wings, Long Black Veil, Heartaches by the Number, 500 Miles....brilliantly executed in Rosanne Cash's style. 

I can't stop listening.

It's a mellow, classic country album, but anything but stodgy. 
I'm shamelessly plugging it here on the Chronicles, because I want someone else to be excited by this find of mine!