Rosanne Cash

Named “one of the most ambitious and literary songwriters of her generation” by Rolling Stone magazine, Rosanne Cash is America’s foremost musical woman of letters, a literate and incisive artist whose poignant and distinctive vocals turn every song into a revelatory tale. A singular artist at the peak of her interpretive powers, Cash has earned four Grammy Awards — three for The River & The Thread (2014, Blue Note) — and 12 additional nominations. Among many other accolades, she became the first woman to receive the Edward MacDowell Medal for music composition in 2021. Her acclaimed 2010 memoir Composed has been described by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read.” Cash was recently elected as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

“I consider artists to be in the service industry — the premier service industry for the heart and soul. I am curious to a pathological degree and the Sword of Time hangs over me, and those two things — curiosity and the hourglass — make me feel more urgent than ever to connect, to find community, and to create. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks, it only matters that what is unsaid and what is unseen is given form and has a voice.”

In 2023 Cash and her husband John Leventhal, the six-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter, producer, and her lifelong creative partner, launched RumbleStrip Records, an initiative to reexamine and reissue Cash’s early work, originally released on Columbia/Sony Music and beyond. The first two releases were a deluxe remastered version and first vinyl pressing, respectively, of Cash’s landmark album The Wheel and Leventhal’s debut solo album Rumble Strip (2024), released 50 years into his remarkable career. In 2025 they released The Essential Collection, a new 40-song/40-year double CD compilation highlighting Cash’s deep catalog of songs including 10 no. 1 hits. The album coincided with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibition Rosanne Cash: Time Is a Mirror. The exhibition explored Cash’s more than 40-year journey as an artist, songwriter, and storyteller and how she has embodied both tradition and innovation across her musical career. It runs through March 2026. Cash and Leventhal also wrote the music for the theatrical production Norma Rae.