BOOKS
“One of the best accounts of an American life you'll likely ever read.”
-Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune
As moving, disarming, and elusive as one of her classic songs, Composed is Rosanne Cash's testament to the power of art, tradition, and love to transform a life. For more than three decades she has been one of the most compelling figures in popular music, having moved gracefully from Nashville stardom to critical recognition as a singer-songwriter and author of essays and short stories. Her remarkable body of work has often been noted for its emotional acuity, its rich and resonant imagery, and its unsparing honesty. Those qualities have enabled her to establish a unique intimacy with her audiences, and it is those qualities that inform her long-awaited memoir.
With an iconic sound that transcends country, pop, rock, and blues, Rosanne Cash’s voice and vision have captured American life for generations of fans.
Over the same time span, internationally acclaimed artist Dan Rizzie has wowed collectors with his evocative paintings, prints, and collages. Now, in a book that is as unique as their artistry, Cash and her longtime friend Rizzie have teamed up to create an extraordinary hybrid. Blending images created by Rizzie with strands of lyrics from a variety of Cash’s songs (including new material from her latest album, She Remembers Everything, as well as her beloved classics), Bird on a Blade is a mosaic designed to inspire the imagination and soothe the heart.
Penelope Jane de la Fesser, a flying French fairy, is just the perfect size to live in the right-hand dresser drawer of her very best friend, five-year-old Carrie. When this eyelash-fall fairy decides one day to go to school with Carrie, she doesn't let her tiny size stand in the way of getting into some really big trouble! But when the whole school is suddenly in danger, Penelope Jane musters a lion's share of courage in order to save the day.
What happens when you ask today's top songwriters to apply their talents to prose You get a surprising and diverse collection of writing as penetrating and unforgettable as your most beloved album.
Like writers and poets, the best songwriters are storytellers; their words and music inspire, move, and comfort us. This wholly original collection brings together the talents of today's most accomplished songwriters in a compelling and rewarding anthology -- not of songs, but of prose. Although most of the songwriters included here have never before published a work of this kind, their talent for it is undeniable.
Always Been There: Rosanne Cash, The List, and the Spirit of Southern Music
by Michael Streissguth
In 1973, Rosanne Cash's father gave her a list of 100 songs, many from the Southern tradition, that he felt a young musician had to know. Always Been There tells the inside story of the album that, more than thirty-five years later, resulted from "the list."
