For her first true studio recording in a decade, Rosanne Cash called on family and friends for writing and vocal duty. The Grammy-winning Cash co-wrote eight of the eleven tracks on Rules of Travel and also enlisted Jakob Dylan, Joe Henry, Marc Cohn and longtime producer John Leventhal to lend their pens to the project.

The album, due on March 25th, also features an all-star group of guest vocalists led by Johnny Cash -- who sings his first-ever duet with his daughter -- and also including Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle and Teddy Thompson.

The album will be Cash's first fully hatched recording since 1993's The Wheel and first release since the spare 1996 collection, 10 Song Demo. The delay between those releases and Rules was both professionally and physically imposed. In 1995, Cash published Bodies of Water, her first collection of stories. She also wrote the children's book Penlope Ann in 2000, and last year she edited Songs Without Rhyme: Prose by Celebrated Songwriters. While writing provided a positive outlet, Cash also encountered difficulties as she began work on the Rules in 1998, when she lost her voice for two years. After working with a voice therapist, Cash was able to sing again by 2000 and resumed work on Rules.

"It was such a revelation losing my voice, and getting it back," Cash said. "I feel a lot of passion about singing, and a lot less fear."

ANDREW DANSBY
(December 17, 2002)