In conversation with American Songwriter for the November/December print issue, Roseanne Cash spoke about the process of writing songs for the Broadway musical Norma Jean, working with The National, her songwriting process, and the 30th anniversary of her album The Wheel.
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Cash began writing the music for Norma Jean six years ago along with her husband and co-producer John Leventhal. The two hope the show will be ready for the 2024-2025 Broadway season, but in the meantime, she spoke about the unique challenge that comes with writing lyrics for other people to perform.
“It’s a huge shift, because they’re not for me to sing,” she began. “So writing in character has been a big shift, and finding a character’s individual sense of poetry or language that isn’t mine.” Cash continued, giving a specific example of a character’s differing perspective, “Writing in the voice of older Black men in North Carolina in the 1970s, I had to be so careful to find a voice that I really had no experience with, and to be respectful, and to find what their language was.” She then gave compliments to her husband, saying “John married Sondheim and Appalachia so deftly” in the composition.
Reflecting on The Wheel
Cash released The Wheel, her eighth studio album, in 1993. Its focus was on embarking on new paths and relationships, specifically her relationship with Leventhal after the dissolution of her marriage to Rodney Crowell. With The Wheel turning 30 this year, Cash and Leventhal are releasing The Wheel 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition under their own label, RumbleStrip Records.
“I really resist looking back,” Cash shared. “I’m always interested in what’s next and what inspiration is coming. I actually get a little anxious about looking back and going over things I did, because I always hear what I could have done better. I don’t like to revisit those times in my life.” She continued, “I’m excited about what’s next, but having said that, the trajectory of everything that we’ve done together started with that record, and it was a real watershed moment in both of our lives.”
Cash mentioned the significance of The Wheel, and the fact that she and Leventhal worked on it together for the first time. “That is as important, if not more, than what we actually recorded,” she said, “so it is infused with something much bigger. It’s got a much bigger life, at least in my feeling of our history.”
“I think I’m a Better Songwriter, Overall”
Speaking of and reflecting on her earlier lyrics, Cash noted, “At my age, it’s time to be proud and claim those things I did, even if they sound outdated to me sometimes, of if I cringe at a lyric and go, ‘Oh, that’s so self-serving, or navel-gazing’ or whatever. It’s time to claim those things for what they are.”
Leventhal, who was present for the interview, commented that she is “a more poetic lyricist” than she was in the past, while Cash noted that she does a few technical things differently now.
“I’m not as attached to nature metaphors as I used to be,” she admitted. “I’m not obsessed with the intricacies of romance as much as I was—even though I still feel just as romantic about [Leventhal]—but it doesn’t need to be rehashed over and over.”
Cash then shared a bit of her current inspirations when writing, saying, “I like writing in voices of characters. I’m more willing to take chances, lyrically. Learning to co-write with [Leventhal] made me less territorial. I think I’m a better songwriter, overall.”
The full interview is featured in the November/December issue of American Songwriter Magazine, available now.
Featured Image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Americana Music Festival
