The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will examine the groundbreaking, influential career of Rosanne Cash in its newest exhibition. Rosanne Cash: Time Is a Mirror will explore Cash’s more than 40-year journey as an artist, songwriter and storyteller, and how she has embodied both tradition and innovation across her musical career. The exhibit, which opens Thursday, Dec. 5, and runs through March 2026, is included with museum admission.
Beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present day, Cash has staked out a distinctive place in American music. Her songs have drawn on rockabilly rhythms, the truth-telling of folk-rock songwriters, West Coast country-rock energy, new wave flash and deeply rooted country music. A four-time Grammy winner, her hits include “Seven Year Ache,” “Blue Moon with Heartache,” “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me,” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” “It Hasn’t Happened Yet,” “Tennessee Flat Top Box, “No Memories Hangin’ Round” and “Never Be You,” among others. Throughout her career, she has maintained an unwavering artistic spirit and vision. In 2021, Cash became the first female composer to receive the MacDowell Medal, awarded since 1960 to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to American culture.
“Rosanne Cash has been called ‘a musical mystic’ and a ‘songwriting time traveler,’” said Kyle Young, chief executive officer for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Her music moves across genres and legacies, looking backward and forward in time. While she works within musical traditions that shaped her, the way she has turned those traditions in fresh and unexpected directions has defined her.”
“I never expected to be embraced and honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in this way,” said Cash. “I’m sincerely humbled, as I have so much respect for the mission of the museum and the dedicated team who are so superb in preservation and education. It’s been a thrill to sort through the artifacts of my life and career with the curators and find that these things are valued beyond just my own memories. I have thought about my children a lot while sorting items, listening to songs, and discussing the exhibit, and one of the best things about this honor is anticipating sharing the experience with them. I’m extraordinarily grateful to be given this tribute, and the opportunity to deepen my relationship with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.”
The exhibit will include stage wear, song manuscripts, instruments, photographs, videos and more. Some artifacts on display will include:
- The handwritten lyrics by Cash for her song “The Real Me,” from her 1987 album, King’s Record Shop.
- Cash’s red velvet shawl worn in the 1988 music video for “It’s a Such a Small World,” written by Rodney Crowell. A #1 country hit, her duet with Crowell was included on his 1988 album, Diamonds & Dust.
- A modest desk used by Johnny Cash when writing at his small, private office at home. Rosanne, who inherited the desk after her father’s death, thinks of it as a prism where the past and the future, legacy and rebellion, come together.
- The 1964 Gibson Dove guitar acquired by Cash’s husband John Leventhal in the 1990s. It became her primary performance guitar for many years. Leventhal also played the instrument extensively on Cash’s 2003 album, Rules of Travel, and presented it to Rosanne’s daughter Carrie Crowell and her husband, musician and producer Dan Knobler, as a wedding gift in 2014.
- Cash’s Martin OM-28M Rosanne Cash Signature Edition model guitar, which she used extensively. The instrument is the first of 48 of her signature guitars built, with a rose inlay on the headstock and “CASH” inlaid in mother-of-pearl at the final fret on the fingerboard.
- Cash’s handwritten lyrics for her song “Closer Than I Appear,” from her 2003 album, Rules of Travel.
- Carmen Marc Valvo–designed laser-cut leather duster worn by Cash at appearances in 2006, including Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) conference, her concert at Carnegie Hall and the “Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
- Cash’s Libertine plaid jacket worn on the cover of her 2009 album, The List.
- Cash’s Alabama Chanin suede jacket, embellished with gold beads, worn when she was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in 2017. During the ceremony at Austin’s ACL Live at the Moody Theatre, Cash and John Leventhal were joined by Ry Cooder, Neko Case, and Elvis Costello for a performance of Cash’s 1981 breakthrough hit, “Seven Year Ache.”
- Stella McCartney–designed jacket, embellished with rhinestones and embroidered birds, worn by Cash at the Americana Honors & Awards ceremony at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in 2018.
Opening weekend program
In support of the exhibit’s opening, Cash will participate in a conversation and performance in the museum’s CMA Theater on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 2:30 p.m. The interview will be illustrated with archival photos, audio recordings and video clips. Cash will also perform during the program. Tickets will be available here on Friday, Oct. 18, beginning at noon Central.
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