Rosanne Cash new album : The River and the Thread

Rosanne Cash’s first album of new material in eight years (2009’s The List consisted of covers) is so worth the wait. The River & the Thread is a virtual audio-travelogue of her investigation of the American South’s complex history.

(While Cash was born in Memphis, she was raised mostly in California.) With its restrained, smoldering slide-guitar opening riff, “A Feather’s Not a Bird” moves with a sultry, slow, supple groove, an artful mix of Tony Joe White’s swamp pop and Allen Toussaint’s N’awlins sophistication. “Etta’s Tune” strides the line between country and folk, with gently crisp mandolin, acoustic guitar picking, and subtly swelling pedal steel. The near-ghostly chorus of the plaintive “Tell Heaven” carries undertones of country gospel, and the austere two-beat crackle of “The Sunken Lands” echoes her father’s song “I Walk the Line.”

Agencies/Canadajournal