Customer Reviews

Black Cadillac

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Rosanne Cash has had a tough time of it lately. In the space of 24 months, her step-mother, father and mother passed away--the latter on Rosanne's 50th birthday.

This album is a meditation on loss, but it's also about how one's loved ones are always present, living or dead.

The first voice you hear on this album is that of Rosanne's father, the great Johnny Cash. Yet, the album is never mawkish or too sentimental. Instead, the music supports the powerful lyrics. "I Was Watching You" is a classic for the ages; "House on The Lake" sounds like a lament influenced by the Delta blues. The title song is truly a keeper.

At the same time, we hear an agrier Rosanne than we are used to. From "Burn Down This Town" to "Like Fugitives", Ms. Cash is angrier than we have heard her, to good effect.

The production, by Bill Botrell and John Leventhal, supports and uplifts the music. The production is unobtrusive in songs like "House on the Lake", but brings texture to songs, as in the title tune, where trumpets evoke Johnny Cash's recording of "Ring of Fire".

Rosanne is consistently able to evoke the sadness, despair and striving that we all experience. All in all, this album is one of the strongest in the Rosanne Cash canon, proving to be a dark partner to "Interiors".

Roseanne Cash has made some effective albums but nothing has been as strong as Interiors ... until this album. Almost every song tells the tale of cope-able pain. "I was Watching You," Cash talks about the emotions she felt as her father moved on with his life and another wife. But the most effective songs are like a one two punch of honesty and raw emotions. "God Is in the Roses" and "House on the Lake" are heartfelt in their connection to Cash's past and the richness and legacy of her father and stepmother's musical legacy.

Almost every song on the album rings with glorious, true and understated vocals. This is more than a country/folk album. It delves into soulful R&B, mountain blues and blues rock without a hint of falseness. It's like reading the inner pages of someone's thoughts and mussings set to their own soundtrack.

I've never been a big fan of country music, so I'd never really heard Rosanne Cash before. I did like some of her dad's music, but I figured that she was just another second generation "star" who rode her parent's coattails into the limelight.
But when I heard about how this CD came about, and that it dealt with the loss of both parents and a stepmom in less than 2 years, I figured I'd give it a listen. I was amazed at the depth and texture of this recording!
Drom the dramatic opening strains of 'Black Cadillac' to the final notes of 'The Good Intent', this CD sucks you in and will not let go. Musically, each song sets a mood for the hearfelt lyrics it accompianies. This is especially true of the angry 'Burn down this Town' and the somber title tune.
Lyrically, the album mourns, seethes, questions, and even rejoices and comforts transparently. The songs are very well crafted, and even evoked thoughts and emotions that I experienced when my parents died years ago. This is powerful and emotional stuff!
This is one of my favorite albums of 2006, and might appeal not just to country music fans, but to anyone who has ever dealt with the pain of losing someone close.

Loss can cripple you. Loss can empower you. Loss can inspire you.
Anger can have the same effect, all in equal doses. So can insight. Over two particularly tough years, Rosanne Cash reached deep into each of these states of mind - among others - only to emerge with the memory-laden BLACK CADILLAC, a darkly heartfelt ode to life, love and lineage that could well be her musical masterpiece. Calling upon her roots - both inherited and acquired - Cash nimbly dances between the chords of rock, country, bluegrass and rockabilly, tossing in some blues and jazz for good measure. The result? Cash's most rocking album to date, as well as her most country-flavored one in almost twenty years. The fact that the two styles meld so well together is one of the disc's main marvel's. Her voice, long one of the best in pop music history, is freer and fresher than ever, wrapping around each word with just the right emotional nuances and punch. Add to this the brilliant production jobs by Bill Bottrell and John Leventhal (You would think two producers, working on alternating tracks, would be a mess, but the disc's sequencing and flow is seamless!), and you could very well have 2006's Album of the Year. Fittingly, the disc opens with her dad's voice, urging his first-born to "Say...C'mon." From there, we segue into the darkly atmospheric title track. Anchored by an almost ominous bassline and dreamy keyboards, Cash touches upon a topic that surfaces often throughout the album, that of things coming full circle. As a child, she often had to witness her father driving away in the black cadillacs he was so fond of...now, upon his death, she saw him drive away one last time in that ebony-hued automobile, and the feeling was more gut-wrenching than ever ("Now one of us gets to go to heaven/One has to stay here in hell"). Add, as another reviewer said, the "Ring of Fire"esque horns at the end and you have the perfect album opener. "Radio Operator" has a glorious rockabilly - meets - back porch hoedown vibe to it. Touching upon her dad's time as a radio operator during the war, Cash makes it clear that there are messages that still need answers and, though they may not be given verbally, the belief that those questions can always be asked and will be (at least internally) answered, is something that spurs her on, comforting her along the way. To quote an old Carly Simon song, "There's always someone haunting someone", or, in Cash's case, watching. "I Was Watching You", a gorgeously understated ballad, has Cash up in heaven, watching as her parents wed, then as a child witnessing her dad drive away, first for gigs then, after her parent's divorce, for good. This piano-driven beauty ends with her dad now in heaven, perpetually watching over her, making one thing clear....that "long before" AND "after life"..."there is love." "Burn Down This Town" has an edgy Southern gospel meets Southern chain-gang groove to it, something that probably would have put a big, old smile on the Man In Black's face. Known for his propensity for torching things, Cash hints that we all may have that same streak as her dad inisde of us...who wouldn't like to torch that one memory from childhood, that one day at work, that one particular relationship..."just burn it all." Cash delivers the song in a stirring, almost icy, vocal that gets under your skin and stays there. "God Is In The Roses" is another one of BLACK CADILLAC's premiere ballads...with it's delicate vocal and simple bluegrass arrangement, Cash reminds us that things like faith and love continually surround us, in both the good and the bad: "God is in the roses/The petals and the thorns/Storms out on the oceans/The souls who will be born." A true gem! "House On The Lake" has a swampy, swaying bayou feel to it, as Cash comments on the ghosts that still occupy - and pull her to - her dad and stepmother's lakeside home in Tennessee ("I hear his voice close in my ear/I see her smile and wave"). Though the rooms are empty and the house up for sale, Cash tenderly, but firmly, informs us that the love and memories made here can never be sold. Considering the fact that I've always wanted Rose to rock out more, I'm kind of shocked to discover that my favorite track on BLACK CADILLAC is the jazzy, albeit lovely, ballad "The World Unseen"; there's something elegantly regal to this beautiful piece that quickly ranks it among her all-time Top Ten best. With it's shuffling rhythm section and mesmerizing piano fills, the song flows out of the speakers like gentle wisps of fragrant hickory smoke. Add Cash's velvety vocal and touching lyrics ("So I will look for you/Between the grooves of songs we sing/Westward leading, still proceeding/To the world unseen") and you have an instant classic. Following "The World Unseen" is another one of BC's high points, the biting "Like Fugitives." Cash has expressed anger before, but it's never been so overt: anger over her mother's death, anger about the lawyers and organized religions of the world who pontificate over the well-being of the earth, then rape, plunder and abuse it behind our backs, and anger towards those silly, simple souls who want to save her - yet at the same time condemn her! - for expressing her own thoughts, feelings and points of view (on her own website, no less!). With a pulsating arrangement that thumps like a heartbeat or a throbbing vein alongside your temple, Cash's barely contained vocal hits you in the gut like an iron fist in a velvet glove. Brilliant! Up next we have the upbeat power pop of "Dreams Are Not My Home" and the other-worldly trance that is "Like A Wave." "World Without Sound" is BLACK CADILLAC's most overtly different cut, what with it's New Orleans Mardi-Gras vibe, but it fits right in. Things wrap up with "The Good Intent" (the ship the Cash family came over to America on from Scotland in the 1600's), a quiet, earthy ballad that nicely bookends the disc. In closing, I just want to reiterate a few things: A) BLACK CADILLAC could very well be Rosanne Cash's career masterpiece (and with the body of work she's done over the past 25+ years, that's saying a lot!), B) BLACK CADILLAC is a true front-runner for 2006's Album of the Year and C) BLACK CADILLAC is something you need to experience and identify with for yourself...other people's feelings and thoughts just can't do it justice. So do yourself a favor and climb into BLACK CADILLAC....I promise you, it's a ride like no other! (As with all my reviews, I'm giving the disc an extra half a star for including the lyrics).

Of Rosanne Cash's post-hitmaking years releases, I suppose I rank "The Wheel" as high as anything. What I especially enjoy about "Black Cadillac" is that it offers some of the same aural variety as "The Wheel" while also achieving the lyrical intensity of "Interiors". That's a pretty powerful combination, and it makes "Black Cadillac" a rich creation on many levels. While I love the throbbing opening song, I find "God Is in the Roses" most moving of all. To know and experience joy, one has to accept and feel grief as well. I've never heard that thought expressed more eloquently than Ms. Cash does in this song. And she makes the sadness beautiful, too.

I have never listened to Rosanne Cash before, but I read about this album after watching "Walk the Line" and I decided to purchase it. WOW. I am so glad I did. What a fantastic album.

The most striking thing about this album is the emotions Cash has poured into it - it's as if she is sitting in your living room, telling you about the loss she's experienced. Clearly, though, the healing has begun. This album has got to have been cathartic for her, otherwise there is no way it would be as enjoyable to listen to as it is. So there you are, almost sharing her grief and smiling while remembering the good times she had with her family. It's an interesting place to be.

I am glad this is how I was introduced to Rosanne Cash, and I look forward to enjoying her other albums.

This is a great album. Written after her father died, Johnny Cash's presence is felt throughout the album, made obvious by the family sound clips that begin and end the album. The love she felt for her father is so clear and present in this album, it almost feels like you are intruding on her private moments. The songs "I Was Watching You" and "The World Unseen" are profound and moving ballads, and I find myself playing them at night.

The sound quality in the album is a bit rough, like the roadhouse cast much of the music takes on. It really works with this music. The music does suffer a from heavy compression in places that is glaringly and unprofessionally obvious. Does every album really have to go to '11'? But the strength of the music conquers these problems.

Rosanne Cash has great title tracks. Any disk that contains a title track is excellent. `Black Cadillac' is no exception. From her father's spoken word, the opening baseline (which is just great great hook) then the wurlitzer coming in you know it's going to be good...even down to the horns at the end that come from "Ring of Fire".

Clearly there is a nod to her parents throughout most of the disk. Saying that it is all about their deaths would be selling it short.

Bringing in a new producer on some tracks seemed like a good idea. Ironically, Bill Bottrell's work seemingly covers what is more predictable Rosanne - slower, introspective material. The stuff John Leventhal would have usually done. He shows some originality with Cash's work like "World Without Sound" - bringing in New Orleans style horns and then his work on the title track. "The World Unseen" is so Sarah McLachlan-y it's a bit unnerving. Not that the songs aren't good or the delivery is bad. Bottrell's best contribution might be "Dreams Are Not My Home".

Husband/frequent producer Leventhal's style is what becomes most pleasing. He has spanned out on how he works with his wife. "Burn Down This Town" and "Like Fugitives" really stepped up to the plate and put Cash on a different level. "Radio Operator" is very good too, and there almost seems to be some homage to the work of Cash's former husband, Rodney Crowell.

Cash has said this disk covers her musical history - and she couldn't be more correct. `Black Cadillac' definitely contains certain elements of `Interiors' ("I Was Watching You") mixed w/some `Kings Record Shop' ("Radio Operator"), `Right or Wrong' ("House on the Lake") and even 'Rhythm and Romance' (the vocal arrangement on `World Without Sound' is eerily like "Halfway House". But enough new dynamics exist that makes the disk all its own.

The video is nice - but was all playable via Capitol's website weeks before the release.

If I have any issues it would be w/the multi-media. Though it plays fine on my Powerbook - I could not get the media (or music, for that matter) to play via Window's MediaPlayer. The disk is useless to me at work. After the Sony/Cash reissues debacle, I would have thought Capitol would have been a little better about releasing this in a way where it could be played easily.

'Black Cadillac' is a very very good disk. It's not her best - that is still reserved for 'Interiors'.

No words can give justice to this hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking masterpiece. Rosanne bares her soul, raw emotion and stark beauty abound. A skillfull songwriter, Rosanne is able to convey emotion at its purest level like no one else can. What makes this album so good is its variety between sweet touching poetry, and raw uptempo rebellion and grief. No emotion is left unexplored. "Black Cadillac" is spine tingling, with her Dad's voice appearing at the beginning and at the end of the album, and in between "Black Cadillac" takes us through a journey of longing, hurt, spirituality and rage and then back. Commercial radio these days has no heart or soul. These songs deserve to be heard; Rosanne is one of the most underrated treasures in the biz. Wake up America--play people that have true heart--Rosanne's "Black Cadillac", Emmylou Harris' "Stumble into Grace" and Anne Murray's "All of Me" (Disc one) will take you where no radio station ever will--in touch with all of life's true and deep emotions. And this is a much deeper space to be in than Madonna dancing in leotards and sampling overplayed 70's ABBA material. I can't be the only one thinking this.

I bought this just before a road trip right after the death of a loved one, and I couldn't stop listening to it. Anger, denial, every stage of grief is represented in these deeply personal songs. It has become an album I go to every time I find myself bound up in my own grief. It is healing to hear Rosanne Cash put words and music to a strong emotion that most of us can only feel, not express.