When you read the name Rosanne Cash, chances are you think of the singer-songwriter with nearly two dozen Top 40 hits, fourteen Grammy nominations, and four Grammy Awards. If you have paid close attention, you may also think of Cash as an author, whose 2010 memoir Composed garnered praise from high-profile critics and landed on The New York Times’s bestseller list. Or you have seen her as a music community catalyst who often brings together giants of American roots music for various events. Or in documentary films, as someone with a valued voice and a first-hand experience of modern music history.
If you take a step back, though, it becomes much clearer that Rosanne Cash is all these things at once. The totality of her role as an artist, a woman, and the responsible courier of a storied cultural legacy means Cash is a rare artist with many outlets. All of these point toward the same end: Her belief that art and culture are a vital, shaping force in society.
John Leventhal is a six time Grammy Award-winning musician, producer, songwriter, and recording engineer who has produced albums for William Bell, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Michelle Branch, Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, Sarah Jarosz, Jim Lauderdale, Joan Osborne, Loudon Wainwright, and many others.
In 1988 he produced and co-wrote Shawn Colvin’s Grammy winning debut album Steady On.
He arranged and played multiple instruments on Marc Cohn's 1991 hit Walking In Memphis.
In 1998 he won Grammy Awards for both Record and Song Of The Year for producing and co-writing the song “Sunny Came Home” (a 1997 hit for Colvin).
Leventhal produced and co-wrote Rosanne Cash's 2014 release, The River And The Thread. The River And The Thread won 3 Grammy awards: Americana Album Of The Year, Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance for A Feather's Not A Bird.