A Conversation with Michael Streissguth,
Author of Always Been There

Considering the research and writing you’ve done on Johnny Cash throughout your career, was it difficult to rethink the context in which you had gotten to know Rosanne Cash and write about her in the light of her own celebrity, out the shadow of her father’s legacy?

No...because in the 1980s I was actually more interested in Rosanne's music than Johnny's. In my mind, she has always had her own career.

Why did Rosanne want to record her cover album, The List even though it tied her to her father again after she fought for and gained her own name in the music world?

Over the years, she has developed an acceptance of her family tradition, and sees the album as carrying on a family tradition but also carrying on a ballad tradition.

How do you interpret Rosanne’s unwillingness to adapt her own father’s lyrics the way she works with other classics on The List?

You're talking about "Big River," which actually didn't make the final cut on the album. All I can say is that she must see those lyrics as sacred because they are from her father's pen.

Talk a little about the list—what does it mean to you?

The list is a physical manifestation of Johnny Cash's love and study of American music. It's somehow satisfying to know that the man who gave us his rich music looked to a tradition for inspiration. It's comforting to know that Rosanne is passing down the tradition.

What does Rosanne wish to accomplish with this project?

Rosanne is concerned that there is a generation of people who don't know these songs. She wants to introduce those people to them. I think for Rosanne it's also about reassessing, taking some time to consider where she is in her career, pausing before turning back to her songwriting.

Which singers, song writers and musicians affected Rosanne most aside from her father? How did June Carter, her father’s second wife and southern music artist in her own right, affect Rosanne on a personal and musical level?

Rosanne has never talked much about the influence of the Carter Family on her. The book dwells on that relationship. Helen Carter actually helped teach her guitar and introduced her to the music of the original Carter Family. "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow," which appears on the album, comes from that interaction with Helen. It's amazing that Rosanne tapped two great country music traditions to become who she is as an artist.

How have Rosanne’s recent tragedies—her father’s death and her own brush with illness—shown through on The List?

Rosanne is like the rest of us. Such events engender periods of reflection. The List, as Rosanne reveals in the book, is part of a reconnection with her father.

What is the significance of this list in the greater context of southern music? Is it fitting that the daughter of Johnny Cash is the one to deliver it?

Nobody has greater authority than Rosanne to interpret the songs that her father considered great. She is honoring him and honoring the deep well of southern music that has informed so much of what we now know as rock, country, and the blues. Rosanne is arguably her father's greatest legacy.

What do you predict for Rosanne Cash’s future?

I see her returning to songwriting but not unwilling to cover great songs. The List has been a reinvigorating experience for her.

Pop music style has recently found its way into country music to create a more mainstream sound for the purpose of appealing to more audiences and markets. How do you interpret, for example, Taylor Swift’s recent VMA win in the broader scope of southern music?

The pop style to which you refer is certainly good for Nashville's coffers. Elements of pop have always dwelled in the country music industry and kept the Nashville machine humming, so in that respect Taylor Swift is positive. What we have to hope for is that there will continue to be people like Rosanne Cash who have the vision to remind country music of its roots.

How do you continue to find new and exciting projects for yourself, like this book, after all of the previous writing you have done on the Cash and country music?

Country music moves me when it helps me understand the stories of Americans. There was no better story teller, I think, than Johnny Cash.

Rosanne has her own brand of story telling, a style that explores human emotions, modern challenges, and spiritual matters. I'm drawn to Rosanne for that reason and for her ability to so smartly observe the world around her.

What is your favorite Johnny Cash song? How about Rosanne Cash song?

"Five Feet High and Rising." It's an ingenious tale about hope and coping with the challenges of life. And my favorite Rosanne Cash song is probably "Runaway Train," a song that seems to come from the mists of time, a song that Jimmie Rodgers may have written were he alive today.

How has the experience of writing this book changed you and the way you think of the history of southern music and the legacy of Johnny Cash?

You know...I didn't set out to explore Rosanne's creative process as a way of understanding the legacy of Johnny Cash. One, I knew the creative process itself would be interesting and worthy of consideration in a book. Two, I knew that Rosanne Cash is an interesting and challenging person in her own right. I wanted to see how she would react to the curve balls that she faced while making an album.

If early sales figures are any guide, The List could prove to be one of the most popular albums of Rosanne's career. It's encouraging to know that the chestnuts of American roots music can still shine anew for audiences and artists of Rosanne's caliber are still willing to dust them off and take polish to them.