By: Jay Minkin
Date: 11/16/2009

Some excellent holiday gifts are part of the latest fall album releases that are sure to vie for my year end number one. 

    Rosanne Cash released her latest studio album entitled The List, based on a list of 100 greatest country and American songs that Johnny Cash gave her when she was 18. The 54 years young Rosanne is the eldest daughter of the late country music legend and his first wife, Vivian. 

  From 1981’s Seven Year Ache to 2006’s Black Cadillac, Rosanne Cash has created her own legacy as a great American singer/songwriter. Her voice still shines on the 12 recorded numbers for the album from the 100 song list, including the beautiful “Motherless Children,” “Sea of Heartbreak,” featuring backing vocals by Bruce Springsteen, the old country standard “Take These Chains From My Heart,” the bluesy “I’m Movin’ On,” “Heartaches by the Number,” with Elvis Costello, and “Long Black Veil,” with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. 
 
    For those of you lucky enough to hear the preview back in July when Ms. Cash entertained a packed house at the Kent Stage with producer/guitarist/husband John Leventhal, I’m preaching to the choir about an album that will be loved from young listeners, to my generation—and beyond. 

    Now for my young readers, you should turn Ma and Pa onto The Avett Brothers’ latest album entitled I and Love and You. The folk-rock band from Concord, North Carolina is made up of two brothers: Seth Avett on piano, guitar, and vocals, along with Scott Avett on banjo, guitar, and vocals.

    Rounding out the trio on stand-up bass is Bob Crawford. The follow-up to 2007’s critically acclaimed Emotionalism, their three-part harmony on the title track “I and Love and You,” “January Wedding,” “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise,” and “Ten Thousand Words” are wonderfully crafted Americana.

    The upbeat “Kick Drum Heart,” “Tin Man,” and “Slight Figure of Speech” sound closer to their legendary intense, energetic, and soulful live performances. The Avett Brothers are booked for the House of Blues on Saturday, February 27, so get your tickets soon ‘cause this show will sell out.

Reach Jay at blues4bird@aol.com.