Cash and Cooder on Cash: The Music of Johnny Cash
Boch Center at the Wang Theatre
Boston, MA
October 30, 2019

** 16 BIT **

Source: Sony ECM-MS907 mic > Edirol R-05 @ 24 bit/48 kHz
Mastering: .WAV > Sound Forge Pro 11.0 Build 299 [iZotope Mastering Suite (declick); minor edits, normalize, & fades] > CDWav
(tracking) > iZotope MBIT+ (dithered and downsampled to 16 bit/44.1 kHz) > Trader's Little Helper (level 5) > FLAC > TagScanner
6.0.35 (tagging)
Location: Seated, 8th row, right of center
Recorded by: Jim Kelly (musicjaime)
Mastered by: Dennis Orr

Setlist: (1:46:15)
01 Crowd > Intro
02 Understand Your Man (1)
03 Guess Things Happen That Way (2)
04 Chat
05 Hey Porter (2)
06 Chat
07 Pickin' Time (1)
08 Tennessee Flat Top Box (1)
09 Don't Take Your Guns To Town (2)
10 Chat
11 Hardin Wouldn't Run (1)
12 Chat & Tuning
13 Home Of The Blues (3)
14 Chat
15 Get Rhythm (2)
16 I Walk The Line (1)
17 I Still Miss Someone (1)
18 Band Intros & Chat
19 Give My Love To Rose (2)
20 Chat
21 The Long Black Veil (1)
22 Chat
23 Big River (2)
24 Ring Of Fire (2)
25 Encore Break
- Encore -
26 Chat
27 I'll Fly Away (1)

(1) Rosanne - lead vocals
(2) Ry - lead vocals
(3) Rosanne & Ry - duet

Rosanne Cash - vocals & guitar
Ry Cooder - vocals & guitar
John Leventhal - guitar & musical direction
Glenn Patscha - keyboards
Mark Fain - bass
Joachim Cooder - drums

---

Rosanne Cash and Ry Cooder make Johnny�s music their own
By Marc Hirsh Globe Correspondent - Updated October 31, 2019, 3:50 p.m.

�That�s actually what I have been avoiding for 40 years.� Rosanne Cash was sharing her response to Ry Cooder�s suggestion that they collaborate on performing the music of Johnny Cash.
After all, the singer fought hard to carve out her own musical identity outside the shadow of her country-legend father, and she�s built a marvelous body of work that stands fully on
its own. Then again, she�s engaged with his musical legacy bit by bit over the years: a 1988 country chart-topper with his �Tennessee Flat Top Box�, 2003's duet �September When It
Comes�, filling her 2009 covers album �The List� with songs curated by him years earlier. If an all-Johnny program was inevitable, then Wednesday�s performance at the Boch Center Wang
Theatre came at an ideal time for her, at a point in her career when she has nothing to prove to anyone.

Cash and Cooder opened with three songs played largely as Johnny played them: the chop and clop of �Understand Your Man�, the easy western-swing lope of �Guess Things Happen That Way�
and a �Hey, Porter� drenched in plunking reverb as Cooder � geeking out about it, and not for the last time � played the mid-'50s Fender Esquire used by Luther Perkins to record the
original. As Cooder sang, Cash simply sat back, shimmied her shoulders, and snapped her fingers.

But then, having set the tone with faithful renditions, they began to tinker in ways that infused the material with their own personalities. �Don�t Take Your Guns to Town� transformed
into dusty, groaning Americana, with Cooder singing in a gospel-touched smolder in contrast with Johnny�s hushed, solemn approach. And Cash�s voice on �Hardin Wouldn�t Run� � played on
three guitars and an elaborate thumb piano � looked down with warmth and sadness.

And the most recognizable songs were played in unrecognizable ways, at least until the lyrics arrived. �Ring of Fire� was practically transformed into a Nick Cave song, with a
foreboding tick-tick-tick rhythm, open-ended guitar parts, and Glenn Patscha�s piano playing icy, rangy flourishes. �I Walk The Line�, meanwhile, was warm and openhearted, shimmering
like a Cash song from the 1990s.

It was precisely those moments that revealed the way forward for the Johnny tribute that his daughter had dreaded all those years: Perform his songs like they were Rosanne Cash and Ry
Cooder songs. Even with the bleed of reverb, there was always space between the instruments, the way Cooder liked it. And Cash�s incomparable vocal empathy was like a beating heart
throughout. They closed with �I�ll Fly Away�, staggeringly beautiful as they traded verses and harmonized with guitarist John Leventhal on the refrain. As Cash explained, �[My father]
always ended with a gospel song, he said, to please his mother.�

ROSANNE CASH AND RY COODER

At the Boch Center Wang Theatre, Oct. 30

Marc Hirsh can be reached at officialmarc@gmail.com or on Twitter @spacecitymarc



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