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Technically, every day is the first of a new millennium, and it would not bother me at all if the one that starts today sounds a lot like Rosanne Cash.

Monday, October 15, 2001

By John Hayes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Saturday's Voices For a New Millennium performance at the Byham Theatre, her first in three years after surgery to her throat, rekindled the topical introspection and musical boundlessness that has marked Cash's career since she drifted to the left of mainstream country.

Like Emmylou Harris, Cash carries her art beyond the predictable without losing the sincerity and song craftsmanship at the core of country music. And like Harris, she's been discovered by a new crowd that isn't locked into the whims of commercial radio.

The polite Cultural District crowd listened intently as Cash and her new three-piece band experimented with fresh arrangements of her award-winning hits, post-country ballads and new stuff from her next album, due in February from Capitol.

In an hour and 10-minute set, Cash showed off her newly recovered vocal cords. It was a smart set that meandered from a brisk "Runaway Train," from her 1987 "King's Record Shop," all the way to personal interpretations of frighteningly topical songs by Dylan and Lennon, who Cash called, "the poet laureates of my generation."

Cash took a sarcastic shot at Nashville and the Grammys with a fun setup to her hit, "I Don't Know Why You Don't Want Me," and got deadly serious on the haunting lament, "Western Wall," which recalled her trip to Jerusalem as a teen. The band rocked through Cash's "Seven Year Ache," though she was just as powerful alone with her guitar on "If I Were a Man." Keyboardist Brian Mitchell shined on several arrangements by guitarist and musical director John Leventhal, Cash's husband.

A peek under the wrapper of the new disc shows Cash following the path she was on before the surgery. "44 Stories" opens a window to a private life, supported by a firm but gentle hook.

Cash says her famous father Johnny sings backup on the recording of "September When it Comes," and she's sure to get independent radio airplay on "Closer Than I Appear."

In response to a question from the crowd, Cash confided that her dad, recently hospitalized for the second time this year, "isn't doing well."

Pittsburgh singer-songwriter Tracy Drach opened the show with a half-hour set of sweet originals and covers that showcased her rich, throaty voice and the colorful accompaniment of cellist David Bennett.