I had a taste of The List when I saw Rosanne Cash in concert this past July at the Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, Connecticut.

She performed six selections that night from the album released in September of songs chosen from a list put together by her father Johnny Cash as a musical education for his teen-age daughter in 1973.

The songs on The List are pure country, pure American music as Rosanne puts it, and she brings her special vocal interpretations to them along with wonderful arrangements by her husband John Leventhal, who plays just about all the instruments except for drums.

She also has some special guests in Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright, who put a harmony to Cash’s lead on one song each. The result is an album that started as an education for Rosanne but is now one for the listening audience.

Miss The Mississippi And You, written by William Heagney, is a surprising opener for the album because it’s so unlike anything else on it. It’s the only song arranged with a swing jazz feel, melancholy but light in comparison with much of the subsequent fare. What it shares with the other selections is Leventhal’s basic, pared-down and meticulous arrangement that sees him interweaving guitars and other instruments, as he does on all the tracks.

The traditional Motherless Children is a smouldering, slow-burning house on fire, using beautiful substitution chords with intricate interplay of guitars, mandolin and Larry Campbell’s fiddle, topped with Cash’s expressive vocal. Leventhal takes the first lead in a traditional country style easily riding the rhythm, then closes with a full-bore, hard-edged guitar tone on the tag. The track is a highlight of the album.

All her guests contribute smooth and locked-in harmonies with Springsteen’s perhaps the best on Sea Of Heartache, written by Hal David, the same writer who would later produce Walk On By. Costello provides a nice blend on Harlan Howard’s Heartaches By The Number and Rufus Wainwright creates a chorus of harmonies on Merle Haggard’s Silver Wings.

Jeff Tweedy sings on one of the album’s darker moments, a genre Cash excels in, on Long Black Veil, a haunting moderate-tempo story that brings almost as many chills on record as it did when I saw Cash perform it live.

Another poignant moment is Cash’s version of Hedy West’s 500 Miles, sung with her daughter Chelsea Crowell, and Leventhal providing a complement of keyboard accompaniment.

Others includes Hank Snow’s I’m Movin’ On, covered by many including The Rolling Stones but given a fresh and soulful reading here, the Hy Heath and Fred Rose tune Take These Chains From My Heart, Hank Cochran’s wonderful ballad She’s Got You, Bob Dylan’s Girl From The North Country, well-known for its inclusion on Nashville Skyline in a loose interpretation with Johnny Cash, and the closer, The Carter Family’s Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow.

Cash’s voice is exquistite throughout and Lenventhal, who comes across efficient and proficient live, takes it to another level as producer and main musician on record, executing all his duties with creativity and taste.

There’s a hint in Cash’s notes that this is only the first of many such projects. Let’s hope that’s a promise.