My Music Monday

I had no song in mind for today, so you know the drill:  iTunes Roulette.  The 10th song gets the slot, unless I've already used it, then it goes around until I haven't. 

As it turns out #10 had not been used:  "Bells & Roses" from Rosanne Cash from back almost 30 years. 

The song came from her first album after getting the boot from her long time record label. 10 Song Demo was kind of a risk for a new record company in terms of sales, but the "making of" cost them nothing or next to nothing. That said it probably had no ROI in terms of what may have been spent on marketing and distribution. 

As the album title suggests, there are 10 demos that make up the album. Very little other than voice and an acoustic guitar appear here. Songs, when I first heard them, seem like they'd be incredible had they ever got fleshed out, but at first listen I felt a little cheated that they hadn't been.

In actuality, the album is kind of brilliant as is. It's not quite as stripped down like Springsteen's Nebraska, but there was also a decade and a half of better recording equipment between those disks. 

10 Song Demo kind of fell out of my orbit, but hearing the simplicity and talent of Cash, her voice and her guitar on "Bells & Roses" makes me think I'll revisit this disk this week.