New Yorker Rosanne Cash will be playing free July 4 concert on Governors Island
Governors Island
Free ferry from Battery Maritime Building
Sunday, July 4, free, 2:00
www.trinitywallstreet.org
www.rosannecash.com
Great live music on the Fourth of July is a tradition in New York City. Some of the best free concerts of the last twenty years have taken place on Independence Day, from Yo La Tengo and Dr. John in Battery Park to Sonic Youth and the Sun Ra Arkestra at SummerStage to many, many more. This year’s musical festivities include the one and only Rosanne Cash, who will be playing on Governors Island in a free show sponsored by Trinity Wall Street. Last year Cash followed up her emotional tribute to her late father, 2006’s outstanding BLACK CADILLAC, with THE LIST, an album of classic country, folk, and blues taken from a list of one hundred American songs Johnny had given to her when she was eighteen. She brought in such friends as Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jeffy Tweedy, and Rufus Wainwright to help out on such songs as “Sea of Heartbreak,” “Heartaches by the Numbers,” “Long Black Veil,” and “Silver Wings,” in addition to eight other tunes, including “Motherless Children” and “Girl from the North Country.” She’s a terrific live performer who does not play in the city very often; we caught her at SummerStage a bunch of years ago and she was just beautiful. Cash will also be playing a sold-out show with Steve Earle and Allison Moorer at City Winery on July 8, and she will be releasing her memoir, COMPOSED, on August 10.
Rosanne Cash lets it all out at July Fourth gig on Governors Island (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Update: Longtime New Yorker Rosanne Cash made her first-ever foray onto Governors Island on July 4, as she played a rousing set to a crowd that laid itself out in a long V to keep out of the hot sun. Cash, along with husband John Leventhal on lead guitar, John Cowherd on keyboards, Tim Luntzel on bass, Rich Hinman on guitar and keys, and Dan Rieser on drums, offered a generous, wide-ranging selections of songs from throughout her career, from “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” off her 1979 record, RIGHT OR WRONG, to 1981’s “Seven Year Ache,” to her father’s “Tennessee Flat Top Box” (which she released on 1987’s KING’S RECORD SHOP), to the title track from 1993’s THE WHEEL, to a bevy of songs from her most recent discs, the excellent BLACK CADILLAC (“Burn Down This Town,” “Dreams Are Not My Home”) and last year’s THE LIST (“Motherless Children,” “Long Black Veil,” “Girl from the North Country”), taken from a list of one hundred songs she needed to know that her father gave her on her eighteenth birthday. She added what she thinks should be song 101, getting down with a bluesy version of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe.” (Speaking of Billie Joe, she even threw in a verse of Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” as part of a Fourth of July medley that also included “500 Miles” and “This Land Is Your Land.”) Cash could barely wipe the smile off her face the whole time, having a blast onstage, interacting with the musicians and even dancing a bit. You can check out our concert slideshow here.