We’re getting old. Johnny Cash’s eldest child is 60-years-old. That child, from his first marriage, is Rosanne Cash and the artist of our third featured album in Album per diem: Seven Year Ache. Cash notched 11 number one singles on the country chart throughout the 80’s including all three singles released to radio from this album.
So let’s see what the Daughter in the Black has in store for us.
- Rainin’ – A nice little face-paced song to open up the album. It’s a solid little country song. There’s a lot of bad country songs out there, but is there really a bad song that’s about rain? Country always knocks out rain songs, even when it’s just rainin’ in her soul.
- Seven Year Ache – There’s some songs that just sound perfect sonically and this is one of them. Just everything works. The harmony on this song is beautiful. This is simply one of my favorite songs of all time. A number one and it was written by Cash.
- Blue Moon With Heartache – Sonically it sounds like the night with the moon shining down, it’s another beautiful track. The harmonies again are killer. The liner notes list the following people as harmony vocal which explains why this is a recurring theme: Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and Ricky Skaggs.
- What Kinda Girl? – The beautiful thing about country music is you can go from a sad heartache song to a total rocker and that’s what this song is. It’s a rock song, that is interestingly written. The song is describing what kind of girl she is, but the first verse makes you kind of wonder if there wasn’t a better way to frame it: “I like some turkey but I don’t eat lamb/No sweet potato but I do like ham”. Like it for the rocking, not really for the lyrics.
- You Don’t Have Very Far To Go – The album gets back to the great songwriting with a track co-written by Merle Haggard and Red Simpson. Simply a great heartbreak song. The kind of thing that’s simply missing from country music right now.
- My Baby Thinks He’s A Train – I’m a sucker for train songs and a good metaphor, so this song is a winner. I never thought of trains as the metaphor for a man-whore, but damn does it work. It does bring kind of a bad name to trains, but I’ll let it pass in this instance.
- Only Human – One of those songs that kinda makes you think. We’d be able to take a lot more in this world if we weren’t human, but alas we are only human. Another really solid track.
- Where Will The Words Come From? – Would you like some truth in your songs? I’ve never broken up with anybody, but this song makes it seem just like the moves where it is very tough to find the right words. Another great one.
- Hometown Blues – Another rock as it should be. It’s a cover of Tom Petty’s Hometown Blues. The album surely has found a great mix of slower sad songs and some nice rockers to mix up and keep the listener interested.
- I Can’t Resist – It’s the love song of the album complete with a wonderful saxophone. She can’t resist the temptation of love and it’s hard to resist the song. It’s a nice love song that has ballad qualities that isn’t totally belted, in a good way.
- The Feeling – It’s a groovy song that is a nice track to end the album on. It’s nothing too special, but the groove leads the listener out on a very positive note. It caps off a very, very solid album.
The album doesn’t sound like something her dad would make, but it’s still a wonderful country album. This kind of album is what made the 1980’s a great time to be listening to country music. If current country could turn back to a little bit more of this, I’d raise no complaints. I want to find this album on vinyl because I’d run play this album a lot. I highly recommend this for any lover of music, especially those with a taste for country.
The song you need is still Seven Year Ache, seriously that song is perfection. You need this song. Yes, you do.
Next up: Queen – Innuendo
Collin Kottke: All-Around Swell Guy 