I have long been a fan of Rosann Cash's songwriting and singing. This was an honest look at her life. I found it somewhat chaotic, as I never quite knew which time she was describing. I would like to have known more about her life and musical collaboration with Rodney Crowell, which I am certain was shown through the lens of her current marriage. I will say that she is much better at writing about her life through her songs. In her concert this summer, Rosanne Cash asked a great question of the audience: “How many songs today use the word ‘scaffold’”? Indeed, one of the best parts of this memoir is Cash’s brief history of country music as it used to be: preoccupied with the grim, hardscrabble existence of mountain people, replete with themes of early, violent death. The music has changed, but Cash’s fidelity to her roots has not. “Composed” is the story of her awakening to her own musical DNA and her respect for the paradoxes that shaped her evolution as a performer and a person. The book is a bit circuitous, made more so by its courtly, mesmerizing language.
What do You think about Composed: A Memoir (2010)?
Great depth and understanding of life, I shouldn't have been so surprised by a song writer.
—Sam
Very well written. Gives a good pic on the woman she has become.
—Kaycee
Beautiful use of language, deep view of living a life.
—dcarroll618
