Rosanne Cash Reviews Dad's DVD

9/25/2007 Stephen L. Betts The recently released Johnny Cash Show DVD was reviewed in Eric Alterman’s Altercation column at the political blog mediamatters.org. The guest reviewer was someone who knows a little something about Johnny Cash history: his daughter, Rosanne Cash. She writes: “On June 8, 1969, I walked in to Holy Cross School in Ventura, California, and into my eighth-grade classroom with a new mandate of confidence and coolness. My dad's television show, The Johnny Cash Show, had aired the night before and his guest had been Bob Dylan. My dad and Bob had sat at the edge of a small stage, wearing hip black suits, with only their two acoustic guitars, and had sung a duet of "Girl from the North Country." The entire country, or at least my entire generation, was buzzing. It was a certifiable, seminal musical event.” Jumping ahead 38 years later, Rosanne says of the DVD: “Last night, more than 38 years later, I watched that performance on the new DVD which my brother and my dad's old manager produced. In most childhood memories, when you revisit the place of the memory, the driveway isn't as long, the room isn't as big, the grown-up isn't as tall. Things shrink, scale back and down, and fit into the adult world-view, with its underpinnings of cynicism and weariness. That wasn't the case in this re-viewing. Dad and Bob were just as cool, the guitars looked and sounded just as rich and ringing, their suits were cut just as fine, and the performance was just as great. Add the superb color, ambience, and sensibility of the late Sixties and early Seventies, and you have what I think is damn near a masterpiece in this four-hour, two-disc set. Add the fact that these are the things that survive of my father, and it's nearly unbearable for me, in a good way.” To read the entire review, visit MEDIA MATTERS