Rosanne Cash at Damrosch Park

Rosanne Cash was born in 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee, just as her father, future country music legend Johnny Cash, was recording his first tracks at Sun Records. Rosanne was five years old when her parents separated, and Rosanne and her sisters were raised in California by their mother. After graduating from high school, Rosanne joined her father's road show for two and a half years, first as a wardrobe assistant, then as a background vocalist and occasional soloist. She launched a solo career in 1978 and in the 1980s had 21 Top 40 country singles and two gold records, and won a Grammy Award in 1985. After a 13-year marriage with Rodney Crowell in Nashville, Tennessee, she moved to New York in 1991, remarried in 1995, underwent brain surgery in 2007, parented her children, wrote books and newspaper articles, participated in charity work and recorded albums. The River & the Thread, released on January 14, 2014, is Cash's first album in more than four years.

Just a short taxi ride north from her Chelsea apartment, Cash tonight headlined a free Lincoln Center Out of Doors AmericanaFest concert at Damrosch Park. She opened with the lead track from her current album, "A Feather's Not a Bird," a song inspired by a recent drive from Mississippi to Alabama. The road trip continued with another poetic new songs set in an Arkansas locale, "The Sunken Lands." The first 11 songs of her set comprised the entirety of her new album, all songs in order. The only songs she performed that were not from her current album were the last five of the evening, "Radio Operator" from her 2006 Black Cadillac album, covers of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" and Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On," and closing with her biggest hit, "Seven Year Ache." For an encore of Ray Price's "Heartaches by the Number," she invited openers Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale and the Lone Bellow to come from backstage and sing verses. Overall the concert was mild at best. The best aspect was that Cash did not package her songs for mass acceptance or radio play, but as extensions of her soul. The least compelling aspect was that most of the set was a wash of the same cloth, featuring rather plain vocals, melodies and musical arrangements. Most of the dynamics came not from Cash, but from her excellent guitarists. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant country evening in the city.

Visit Rosanne Cash at www. rosannecash.com.