“In writing about loss, I discovered what remains,” said Rosanne Cash, shortly after beginning a mixed-media performance Saturday night at Dominican University’s Lund Auditorium in River Forest. Her statement set the mood for what became a highly personal, soul-searching journey.
Eschewing past hits and focusing on material from her recent “Black Cadillac” album, the 51-year-old singer interspersed self-narrated videos among key songs. Filled with childhood photos and metaphorical images, the montages elucidated the thoughts behind her re-examination of identity and being after she buried both birth parents and a stepmother in a two-year period.
Cash’s relatives, roots and travels figured prominently in the multimedia affair, which she’d presented just twice before. Dressed in knee-length boots and decorative black shawl, Cash revealed to a near-capacity crowd how in 1973 her father, the legendary Johnny Cash, gave her a list of the 100 essential songs she needed to learn to complete her education. She played two of them, turning “Sea of Heartbreak” into a strutting cry and “Big River” into a blues-belting release, each rousing tributes and opportunities for her superb three-piece backing band to get rhythm.
Yet most of the subdued 95-minute set dealt with anguish, mortality and resolve, the country-based arrangements intentionally left bare to emphasize vulnerable lyrics. All the better, as Cash’s pensive singing resonated throughout the intimate space, her timbre husky and volume ranging from delicately soft to smolderingly robust. She accentuated emotions by motioning her hands and swaying her hips, and she used off-the-cuff banter to keep the atmosphere lively after even the darkest moments.
Cash enjoyed an especially good-natured rapport with her husband, guitarist John Leventhal, whose clean-reverb fills tastefully complemented his partner and encompassed an array of styles. The slow-trotting twang of “God Is in the Roses” found beauty in small details, and “House on the Lake” delighted in the smells and sights of a Tennessee night, the memories sonically expressed by Southern picking and bayou drawl. “Good Intent” took the form of a modern sea chantey, the tune chronicling the arrival by sea of Cash’s first American ancestor in 1632.
