Some of the selections were straightforward. (“I’ve loved ‚Silver Wings‘ and ‘Long Black Veil’ since I was a kid,” she says.) Others proved more difficult for the singer to find her own point of entry. Patsy Cline‘s recording of “She‘s Got You” is so iconic that Cash was intimidated to take it on, before ultimately creating her own glorious take. “Heartaches by the Number” felt structured and fixed, but bringing in Elvis Costello helped her find a way to loosen it up.


“Girl from the North Country” had its own meanings, and its own challenges, for Cash. “That song was so much about my dad,” she says. “I have those images of him singing it with Bob seared into my mind, and I was afraid of it. I had to go back to Bob’s original version, which I actually don‘t know as well, and then approach it as a folk song.”


All of the thought, research, and experimentation that went into each performance is immediately evident on The List. The revelation of this album is hearing Rosanne Cash, for the first time, purely as an interpreter. “I’ve never done a record just as a singer before, so that was a bit jarring to me,” she says. “But John kept pounding home that that’s what this record is really about. So then I kind of got into it, and it was liberating—like ‚OK, these aren’t my songs, I can just have fun and play with them.”


Leventhal crafted a sound for The List that is surprising without being self-conscious, familiar but not obvious. “This was the record John has been waiting his whole life to make,” says Cash. “He has such extensive knowledge about roots music, and a deep, deep love of Southern music. So writing these arrangements was a dream job for him.”


All of the couple‘s knowledge and talent was required for the timeless blues “Motherless Children.” They listened to dozens of versions, recorded by everyone from Eric Clapton to obscure bluegrass musicians.


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