She's hosted the likes of Elvis Costello and Joe Henry in 10 previous installments of
Acoustic Cash, but Sandra Bernhard, Rosanne Cash's guest at last night's
Acoustic Cash XI at the Rubin Museum of Art, was her first female guest—and the perfect choice.
As Bernhard pointed out, both are just a few days apart in age (55, the ever-open Bernhard revealed to Cash's mock chagrin, while accurately noting how great both looked) and live near each other in Chelsea. Mutual admirers, they're both dangerously outspoken, articulate, honest and funny, as well as deeply affecting.
It was a meeting of equals, though Rubin's producer Tim McHenry had every reason to single out Cash as "a female Buddha" and the museum's "resident deity." She must be enlightened, he said, for she was the first performer to grace the Rubin's performance space after it opened in 2004, and the scheduling now of previous
Acoustic Cash guests Teddy Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III for forthcoming solo spots further "shows the power she has."
As the Rubin is dedicated to Himalayan art, Cash centers her museum shows around a painting or Buddhist theme, this one being dreams. Cash noted how Queen Mahamaya conceived the Buddha after dreaming of a white elephant, then opened with her song "Sleeping In Paris." She played acoustic guitar, accompanied by acoustic guitarist John Leventhal—also her husband and producer—and versatile Brooklyn bassist Tim Luntzel.
Bernhard followed with Gary Wright's hit "Dream Weaver." The 1976 soft-rock hit was written after George Harrison gave him a book about a yogi, yet Bernhard invested such conviction into the "Dream weaver, I believe you can get me through the night/Dream weaver, I believe we can reach the morning light" chorus that Cash seemed as dumbstruck as an audience likely expecting Bernhard's monologs.
But Bernhard, who intersperses comedy with song at her own gigs, chose to focus on music. Her magnificent version of the Mama Cass-associated pop standard "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" prompted a jokingly dejected Cash to downplay her follow-up "Dreams Are Not My Home," an original in which she rejects her dreams, as "a depressing little song I wrote"—which it's really anything but.
Cash also covered The Beatles "I'm Only Sleeping" before returning to her own classic "What We Really Want" from her 2005 album
Interiors. She evinced surprise at a splendid duet with Bernhard on "California Dreaming": "I never in my life thought I would do that!" she said of covering The Mamas & The Papas' hit. "Why wouldn't you, though?" countered Bernhard, whose version of Aerosmith's "Dream On," with its closing line "Sing with me just for today/Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away," provoked Cash's quip, "I don't think Queen Mahamaya meant that!"
Remarkably, the pair had only two hours rehearsal time together, due to their busy schedules. Bernhard gently scolded Cash for her upfront "disclaimer" that she was "missing a few notes" due to throat problems ("I sound like Shirley Horn—which isn't a bad thing!"), rightly noting that no one would have noticed. No one noticed, too, that Cash did not sing Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" correctly, that is, no one besides her 11 year-old son, who had told her so.
She and Bernhard closed by alternating verses of "Moon River," then encored with The Monkee's "Daydream Believer." And while the two should consider taking the show on the road, they definitely need to bring Leventhal—and a bass player as good as Luntzel—along. Under-recognized as a great, great guitar player, Leventhal was a veritable chameleon in adapting to the different genres his wife and her partner-in-excellence explored.
