Rosanne Cash on Governor's Island

It was a hot day in New York City, and Governor's Island was the right place to be -- the shady quad and the cool breezes coming off the harbor made the day quite pleasant. In addition, my friend Abigail had packed an excellent picnic lunch. And as if all that wasn't enough, we were going to get to see Rosanne Cash play.

The band was sounding good during the soundcheck; they checked out all of the dynamics using a noodly version of "This Land is Your Land." Her husband John Leventhal was on electric guitar; a second guitarist, a bassist, a keyboardist and a drummer rounded out the group. The second guitarist had a pedal steel in front of him, and I kept waiting for him to shred on it during the show, but it didn't really happen. The sound of the Hammond organ added a lot to the show, and John Leventhal had some good chops on the guitar.

The set was straightforward. Rosanne started off with a number of songs from her most recent CD, The List, which (as we mentioned here) is based on a list of 100 songs that Rosanne's father, Johnny Cash, have her. Then she moved into some of her classic material, and she wrapped up the show with a cover of Harry Belafonte's "Man Smart (Woman Smarter)" for the encore.

The set list looked like this:

• I'm Movin' On - played with a lot of jazzy sounds


• Miss the Mississippi and You


• Heartaches by the Number - great organ solo


• Sea of Heartbreak


• Bury Me Beneath the Willow - dedicated to the librarians in the audience who went wild


• Girl from the North Country


• Long Black Veil


• Motherless Children - rocking out


• Tennessee Flat Top Box


• Burn Down This Town


• Ode to Billie Joe


• Dreams are Not My Home


• The Wheel


• A song that Roseanne hopes her daughter will record


• 500 Miles


• This Land is Your Land


• ENCORE: Man Smart (Woman Smarter)

Update: Eliot in the comments writes: "Rosanne's band (in addition to John Leventhal) consisted of Rich Hinman, guitar, Tim Luntzel, bass, Dan Rieser, drums and John Cowherd, organ."

I had written down "John Coward" instead of "John Cowherd." I know that I've seen Tim Luntzel with various folks around the City over the years -- didn't catch that it was him up there on stage on Sunday. (Indeed in this post, I refer to him as an "excellent bassist" based on seeing him with Teddy Goldstein.)