Another Magical Night of Music

My wife, Arleen, and I were treated to yet another magical night of music at Princeton's McCarter Theatre on April 13th with Rosanne Cash and Mark O'Connor providing the superb entertainment. Mark opened the evening with a four-movement work he created to honor Johnny Cash’s life, music, and memory, which he played with Arash Amini on cello and Melissa Marse on piano. Unaware of O'Connor's classical proclivities (I only knew him as a country fiddler extraordinaire), I was caught a bit off-guard. After exchanging a few puzzled looks with Arleen, Mark's classical-meets-country tribute to The Gentleman in Black came to life in front of us. Never have I seen anyone play the violin/fiddle with such dazzling virtuosity, and I don't expect to ever see anyone ever play better again. I recall asking myself several times, "How does he do that?" Arleen and I have been long-time Rosanne Cash fans, but lost sight of her music and career over the past decade or so. (Raising three sons will do that to you.) After a brief intermission, redheaded Rosanne opened with several excellent songs from her latest Grammy-nominated recording, Black Cadillac. She also played a few songs from her earlier recordings -- Rules of Travel and Interiors, but what really caught our ear were two songs from an album she's currently recording that she called The List Project. She explained that when she was a teenager, her father wanted her to have a deeper appreciation of country music, so after considerable thought, he made her a list of 100 essential country songs to learn. If those two songs are any indication, this will be a must-have recording for anyone who appreciates real country music. I've always marveled at Rosanne’s honest and deeply emotional songwriting, but tonight was different -- I was distracted. Our seats where in the second row directly in front of guitarist (and Rosanne's husband) John Leventhal. What a guitar player! I couldn’t take my eyes or ears off of his subtle, nuanced, but dead-on fretwork the entire night. It was an extremely enjoyable evening, and one that I feel blessed to have shared with my wonderful wife. I’m happy to report that Johnny’s legacy lives on . . .