Book Review with Lots of Music Links: Composed

A Fair Trade Book

Title: Composed

Author: Rosanne Cash

Date: 2010

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 978-0-670-02196-3

Length: 244 pages

Illustrations: few small black and white photos

Quote: “ I have often attempted to explain my experiences to myself through songs...I relish the opportunity to write about my life in this book...to extend the poetry.”

Rosanne Cash was born in 1955, the first daughter of Johnny Cash's first marriage. Ever since, her career has consisted of being a singer who learned from her superstar father and stepmother, but does not sing like either one of them, even if she concedes fans' requests and sings their songs. There are stories of life with Johnny Cash, June Carter, and stepsister Carlene in this book, but not many. Rosanne Cash wants us to know that she's had her own life, written and sung her own songs, even if at times she's had to go to different countries to do it.

For starters she grew up in California, with few ties to Johnny Cash's family in Arkansas or June Carter's in Virginia (although she mentions knowing them), and none to Nashville. She lived in England, in New York, in California, in Europe. She lived with her parents, at times, in their old age. She lived with her husbands (plural) and children. She often has more to share about the process of recording than about any of her huge extended family:

“I knew Rodney shouldn't produce the record. He agreed, and I made appointments to meet with a few different producers...I had the idea of approaching the record as if it were a collection of Celtic songs...nearly all acoustic...I was sick of the big snare sound of the eighties, and I didn't want to spend hours sorting out drum sounds...it had never really occurred to me that I could record drums differently, without the hyperfocus on the exact snare and tom and kick effects...Every studio...was in the process of switching to digital.”

She can go on like that for pages on end, and she does, because that's who Rosanne Cash is: not only a musician, but a music geek, as fascinated by recording technology as she is by melody, harmony, and rhythm. If you want to learn about recording music, you'll love this book. If you want the illusion of being part of the Carter-Cash clan, read one of June's or Johnny's books instead.

While being a team worker, Cash has played most of the positions and pulled more than her own weight on her own recording and marketing business. The high-tech music machine that is Rosanne Cash seems to run at a less furious pace than the one that is Madonna Ceccone, but still...technology has not reached the point where big-name musicians can have time for much of anything else in the way of a life. Partly the detachment from friends and family in this book is a matter of preserving those people's privacy but also, I suspect, it's that the music industry still allows stars precious few opportunities to play with their children or hang out with friends. To be recognized as a master of music (or of most of the arts), it's still necessary to become a slave to it.

As the music industry has evolved, Cash became involved with every aspect of producing and marketing her music. She shares some nice memories of working with “country” and rock stars, but many more of working with the engineers, band members, and obscure musicians you've never heard of; in a subtle, tactful way, she's letting us know that new performers and the non-performing support crew are at least as interesting, to her, as the star singers are, maybe more so. Cash has always been the star of her own shows—her name, all by itself, is a big attraction—but she's worked very very hard at not being a spoiled rich-celebrity-daughter diva.

That may be why, although the song lyrics in this book are solid ones, I can't remember actual tunes for them. Most of them were recorded back when I was still buying records. Cash just didn't want to slot herself into the preset role of Nashville or rock diva, and she could afford to record her own songs, her own way, and as a result, even during the fashion for fusion of the 1980s, she wasn't “packaged” enough to be promoted on the radio. People bought her records if, and only if, (1) they wanted to listen to Johnny Cash's kid, and (2) after hearing how completely unlike Johnny Cash she sounded (duh! she's a woman!), they still wanted to listen to Rosanne Cash. It was an admirable statement...but somehow, like a lot of people even in the folk-and-independent-music community, I didn't become familiar with songs on the radio and buy the albums on which those songs appeared. As a result, although Cash's memoir has a “sound track” with at least one song, singer, or record mentioned every few paragraphs, most of that sound track doesn't play in my mind. People make choices; musical integrity in obscurity has been hers.

If, however, her book makes you curious...you're reading this on a computer, and thanks to today's technology, if you choose to buy things online and set your computer up to play back sounds,you can listen to the sound track while you read Cash's book, probably on the computer you're using to read this review. This is an Amazon Affiliate site (sorry, those who don't like Amazon, I need the money) and Amazon sells digital recordings of music. So here are some links you can use to hear what she's talking about:

(Rosanne Cash's own playlist is linked, but at the time of posting the link doesn't work, at Amazon. Here are the songs: 

"

Here, she’s provided readers with a special playlist—along with behind-the-music liner notes--that puts her unique life story to music. You can also sample and download these songs in our custom MP3 playlist. 

"Sleeping In Paris" (1993)
I wrote this just before I went to Paris in 1990. It became a metaphor for resolving things that could not be resolved. 

"Seven Year Ache" (1981)
This song began as a long poem, three or four pages long, and I distilled it down into the song it became. I wrote it when Rickie Lee Jones first album was out, and it was really influential for me. I was thinking that I didn't know any country songs about being on the streets, or street life, and I wanted to write one. This was my attempt. 

"On The Inside" (1990)
This is the first track on my album "Interiors." The whole album was about the difference between what is going on inside, and what you show the world on the outside. 

"Rules of Travel" (2003)
I wrote the chorus to this YEARS before the whole song was finished. It became the title song of the album. I still think it is one of the best choruses I've written. 

"Dreams Are Not My Home" (2006)
I was in Cambridge, England, playing at the Folk Festival, and my daughter and I climbed to the top of an ancient church, and I looked out over the River Cam and a picture unfolded in my mind, of the river rising, and Chelsea and I flying away. All the images in the song are dream-like, and the chorus is a longing to break free of the dreams. 

"House on The Lake" (1980)
John Leventhal and I wrote this song, and it's full of detail about the home my dad and stepmother lived in. It's from the album 'Black Cadillac'. Many of those songs are about loss, but this one is also about what remains-- the love and memories. 

"The Way We Make A Broken Heart" (1987) 
This song is written by the great John Hiatt, one of my favorite songwriters. It was a big hit for me on the country charts in the 90's. It was an innovative record and just such a beautiful song. 

"Like Fugitives" (2006)
This was the last song I wrote for my album "Black Cadillac," shortly after my mother died. I was angry and sad, and I didn't pull any punches, lyrically. 

"Black Cadillac" (2006)
This was the first song I wrote for my album "Black Cadillac." It was like a 'postcard from the future'. Everyone started dying after I wrote this. 

"She's Got You" (1986)
This song was written by the great songwriter Hank Cochran, and it was made famous by Patsy Cline. I had to get Patsy's voice out of my head to even approach singing this! I finally just asked her to help me. It seemed to work. 
")

Not physically related to Rosanne Cash, Dale Jett is June Carter's cousin and the current proprietor of the Carter Family Fold...where it's become much easier to get in since Janette Carter's demise. If you're in southwestern Virginia and want to meet the writer known as Priscilla King in real life, the Fold would be a good place.

And here's a digital reissue of Patsy Cline...

Most people are reading this on a computer, so you don't have to buy the albums from me; download them directly from Amazon and go somewhere where you can play them on the computer. E-mail salolianigodagewi to buy LPs or cassettes. To buy only the book, e-mail salolianigodagewi or just send $10 ($5 per book, $5 per package) to Boxholder, P.O. Box 322, Gate City, Virginia, and mention that you're interested in this book. Cassettes can be shipped together with books; LPs have to be shipped separately.