Track Listing

1. Black Cadillac
2. Radio Operator
3. I Was Watching You
4. Burn Down This Town
5. God Is In The Roses
6. House On The Lake
7. World Unseen
8. Like Fugitives
9. Dreams Are Not My Home
10. Like A Wave
11. World Without Sound
12. Good Intent
13. 0:71
14. Video Footage

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10474 in Music
• Released on: 2006-01-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Amazon.co.uk Review
No matter what acclaim she may get on account of her musical heritage, it is plain that Rosanne Cash doesn't need to use her family name to get her noticed. Her excellent back catalogue, with the high watermarks of The Wheel or Rules of Travel that she's produced, can now boast a further excellent addition in the form of Black Cadillac. The first album released since the deaths of her father Johnny Cash, and "two mothers" (as she describes her mother Vivian and stepmother June), the hallmarks of an invariably personal album are present, and the songs run the gamut of emotions that accompany such loss, especially when her father's death was mourned by millions. Despite the funereal tone, the music (and Cash's wonderfully personal voice) offer a cathartic and ultimately uplifting set; the memories of her father in "Black Cadillac" is particularly powerful, and the bluesy "Dreams Are Not My Home" works well. The most powerful moments on the album, however, is the lovely downtempo near-jazz of "The World Unseen" which should surely count among Cash's best moments. Likewise, ending the album with "0.71"- 71 seconds of silence- seems a fitting end to a powerful, haunting album. --Thom Allott

Customer Reviews

Sublime
Surely it would stand to reason that an album whose lyrics chiefly concern the death of not only Rosanne Cash's parents (father Johnny Cash, mother Vivian Liberto) but her step-mother too (June Carter Cash) should be a miserable experience for the listener. Thankfully, Black Cadillac is anything but miserable or depressing but is ultimately uplifting and beautiful.

What will surprise many is the sheer breadth of styles Rosanne melts into the album; Burn Down This Town rocks out, whilst Radio Operator gives us a slice of rockabilly; World Unknown is a piano-driven epic whilst the horns in the rhythmic title track and the jazzy World Without Sound are no doubt a tip of the hat to the horns in Ring Of Fire.

In many ways this album makes a fitting companion to Johnny Cash's Personal File cd released earlier in the year being as it is a very personal collection of songs that obviously mean the world to the performer. There is no over-sentimental navel-gazing on display here; I Was Watching You's autobiographical leanings, where Cash relives the death of her father on what she calls the "longest day" of her life, could be cloying in less accomplished hands, but instead Cash transposes the mornful with the redemptive.

And in a sense that is what this triumph of an album is all about. Grief can never totally disappear, but then those loved ones that pass on never truly leave our side either. But this is much more than a tribute to a fallen icon, this is an album which will touch anyone who listens to it. And if you can keep your eyes dry during the closing track The Good Intent, especially when Johnny Cash tells his little baby girl "bye, bye, bye" then you might want to check your pulse.

Superb, yet again,
I won't only give a view on this album, because once you've listened to one of Rosanne's albums, you'll look for the rest. The first time I saw "The Wheel" on CMT I was mesmerized, it was so different to the run of the mill stuff on TV. It was real, it was intense and had a meaning, I never looked back. The Interiors album is as good as it gets for me, it gets you but is stunning.
Black Cadillac is very, very good and gets better after repeated play. Although her loss is apparent, it isn't depressing. She shares her memories and experiences with us, the lucky listeners.
Buy this album, but also buy "The Wheel", "Interiors" and "Rules Of Travel". You will not regret it.

Elegiac beauty

This classic album embraces an impressive variety of styles, like traditional rock, country, the singer/songwriter type of confessional song as well as pop and a bluesy number or two.

The title track, a rock song, is a sad reflection on death with moving lyrics and brilliant guitar patterns. The next one: Radio Operator breaks the gravitas, being a mellow country-pop ditty. The slow contemplative ballad I Was Watching You with its lovely poetic moments is followed by the lilting rock of Burn Down This Town, a catchy number.

One of the highlights of the album is God Is In The Roses, a ballad with a folk or singer/songwriter feel rather than country of rock - like Lucinda Williams. Roses is a memorable song with a superb arrangement, including exquisite piano parts. House On The Lake is bluesy whilst The World Unseen is a slow soulful song with evocative imagery in her recollections of her father.

After the brooding song Like Fugitives comes the breezy Dreams Are Not My Home, a mid-tempo ballad, just like World Without Sound on which she references John Lennon. Another gem on the album is The Good Intent, a tender ballad with a spiritual undertone that stays with the listener long after the last note has faded.

Black Cadillac is a mature work with death as theme but it never becomes morbid or maudlin. The intelligent and often poetic lyrics are framed in beautiful melodies and impressive arrangements. Not an immediate album, it reveals its treasures through repeated play.