Rosanne Cash
A Memphis-born country and Americana singer-songwriter, the eldest daughter of Johnny Cash, whose Seven Year Ache in 1981 and King's Record Shop in 1987 made her one of Nashville's biggest names of the 1980s.
- Origin
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Years active
- 1978-present
- Genres
- country, Americana, country pop, country folk
- Labels
- Ariola, Columbia, Capitol, Manhattan, Blue Note
Memphis to Columbia
Rosanne Cash was born on May 24, 1955 in Memphis, the eldest of four daughters of Johnny Cash and Vivian Cash. After St. Bonaventure High School she toured with her father's road show for about two and a half years, first as wardrobe assistant and then as a background vocalist, and made her studio debut on his 1974 album The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me; in 1976 he recorded her song "Love Has Lost Again". She worked briefly for CBS Records in London, attended Vanderbilt and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. A demo with Rodney Crowell in January 1978 led to a deal with Ariola, and her debut Rosanne Cash (December 1978), largely produced in Munich, was never released in the US.
She married Crowell in 1979, and he produced her albums from Right or Wrong (1980, Columbia) to King's Record Shop (1987). Seven Year Ache (February 1981) was her breakthrough, number one on the country albums chart and certified gold. Somewhere in the Stars followed in 1982, Rhythm & Romance in 1985, with a Grammy for best female country vocal performance for "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me", and in 1988 she was Billboard's top singles artist.
New York
Interiors (1990), her first self-produced album, was shaped by the end of her marriage; she moved from Nashville to New York in 1991, divorced in 1992 and released The Wheel in January 1993, which Wikipedia says was selected for the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry in 2026 and which was reissued in January 2024. She married John Leventhal in 1995, and made 10 Song Demo (1996), Rules of Travel (2003) and Black Cadillac (2006), produced by Bill Bottrell and Leventhal, which Uncut called the most intense record of her career. The List (2009) was Americana Music Association Album of the Year in 2010, and her memoir Composed (Viking) came out in 2010.
The River & the Thread (January 14, 2014, Blue Note), written with Leventhal and produced by him, reached number 11 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the country chart, with guests including John Paul White, Derek Trucks, Rodney Crowell, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine, and won three Grammys on February 8, 2015. She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015 and was artist in residence at the Country Music Hall of Fame, which held the exhibition Rosanne Cash: Time Is a Mirror in 2025. She Remembers Everything came out in November 2018; she told NPR that she had more to say and less time to say it.
Records
- Seven Year Ache 1981 · Columbia
Her breakthrough, the third album, and the first of hers to reach number one on the country albums chart.
- King's Record Shop 1987 · Columbia
Her sixth album, with four number one country singles, named for a Louisville record shop she never visited.
Songs
- Seven Year Ache Seven Year Ache · 1981
Her first country number one and a Hot 100 hit, written when she was 24.
- The Way We Make a Broken Heart King's Record Shop · 1987
John Hiatt's song, the lead single from King's Record Shop and a country number one in 1987.
Related artists
Where to go next
Official
- Rosanne Cash The official site.
Reference
- Rosanne Cash on Wikipedia A full biography.
Discography and data
- Rosanne Cash discography on Wikipedia Albums with charts.
Interviews
- Fresh Air: Rosanne Cash on writing, music and prose A 1996 interview.
Sources
- Rosanne Cash, Wikipedia
- Rosanne Cash discography, Wikipedia
- The River & the Thread, Wikipedia
- Black Cadillac, Wikipedia