Rating: NNNN
Albums based in eulogy can be tricky — how to channel overwhelming grief and pain without resorting to hollow clichés or sentimentality? For Rosanne Cash’s Black Cadillac, that challenge was compounded by multiple, massive losses (of her mother, stepmother and dad, all within the space of two years) and a family mythology that’s caught the public consciousness. And though the slightly sappy tone of September When It Comes, her duet with Johnny from 2003’s Rules Of Travel, made me a bit nervous, she pulls off that balance with staggering grace here. Over 13 weathered and delicately detailed country and countrified rock tracks, Cash perfectly captures her complex emotional responses to the deaths of such huge figures. The title track shows her subtle skill: after an old recording of her dad calling her name, layers of guitar and understated percussion carry Cash’s murmured recollections about the hearse that took his body away, her conflict over a dad who was always on the road, and the ‘black heart of pain’ that suits her fine now. At times, Cash nails the knife-edge of hurt and love so adeptly, you feel like you’re intruding on too-personal confessions.
