Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash is a four-time Grammy winner, an acclaimed author, and a bona fide member of roots music royalty. As the eldest child of Johnny Cash, not to mention one of Nashville’s biggest hitmakers in the eighties (see “Seven Year Ache,” “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me,” etc.) and a stalwart of the Americana scene ever since, she’s got an authoritative take on country music history—not because she’s studied it, but because she’s lived it.
On this episode of One by Willie, Cash goes deep into the weeds on Willie’s original 1959 recording of “Night Life.” It was one of his first compositions to earn its way into the American musical canon, and in our conversation she reveals her affection for the clean-cut, smooth-crooning Willie of the early ’60s, before explaining the effect of a Depression-era upbringing on artists like Willie and her dad. Oh, and she also breaks out her cellphone to play one of her favorite covers of “Night Life”—by none other than Aretha Franklin.
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