Rosanne Cash Honored With New Exhibit At The Country Music Hall Of Fame

Her career stretches back to more than four decades ago with her first album in 1979. It was the next record, Seven Year Ache, that led to her first No. 1 first with the title track. Over the next decade, Rosanne Cash lit up the country charts with a string of No.1’s like “Blue Moon with Heartache,” Tennessee Flat Top Box,” “Runaway Train,” and others.

With her distinctive vocal style, talent for songwriting, and extensive catalogue blending country, country rock, pop, and Americana, the four-time GRAMMY winner has cemented her own place in music history.

To celebrate her many contributions, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has opened a new exhibit: Rosanne Cash: Time Is A Mirror.

For Cash, who tends to focus more on the art and craft of making music, and less on the fame and commercial success side of the business, she was, initially, a little apprehensive about an entire exhibit focused solely on her.

“I was a bit nervous beforehand,” she admits. “When I walked through it the night before it opened, I kept going sort of in and out, like I was looking at somebody else’s life, then looking at mine.”

But as she went from one display case to another and saw the different instruments, artifacts, stage outfits, awards, memorabilia, and photographs showcasing her extraordinary career, she was genuinely touched.

The exhibits follows her journey through the many different stages of her career. In the early days, she was determined to chart her own musical course independent from that of her famous father, Johnny Cash. Years later, after achieving success through her own talent, merit, and hard work, she felt more comfortable embracing her heritage.

“I was determined and incredibly persistent about it because the first years there was no getting away from his shadow. So, I just had to keep my head down and keep going, keep going. And then at some point, late 30s early 40s I kind of thought, okay, I’ve pushed away long enough, I’ve got this, I know what I’m doing, and it’s time to except that legacy as part of my DNA.”

As she made her way through the exhibit, there were some poignant moments.

“My dad’s desk that I inherited after his death is at the centerpiece of the exhibit and on the desk there’s a sculpture of my hands that my dear friend, Sheila Burger, who is a painter and sculpture, did several years ago. I don’t even know how the curators knew it existed, but they got the hands from her apartment in New York and took them back to Nashville.”

There are things from her childhood that foreshadowed her gift for writing. In addition to countless songs, Cash is the author of four books.

“There’s a diary I kept, I guess when I was nine years old, and I’d drawn a picture of a bird. My son saw that and said, ‘Mom, I want to get a tattoo of that bird.’ It was incredibly sweet.”

It was meaningful to see her handwritten lyrics to “September When It Comes.” Cash had polyps on her vocal cords removed that left her unable to sing for years. As she regained her voice, she recorded her first album in a decade (in 2003) called Rules of Travel. She and her father sang that song as a duet. At the time, Johnny Cash was battling his own health issues. He passed away later that year.

The different outfits on display also rekindled some special memories.

“When I look at some of those jackets I remember exactly the gigs, what happened, and how I felt. There’s one particular jacket I wore at the Roxi in Los Angeles in the 80s and I can remember everything about that show. I remember the chord I missed on which song, I remember the review in the LA Times the next day. It’s brought a lot of things back.”

She is grateful the Country Music Hall of Fame wanted to highlight her work and career. Cash, who lives in New York with her husband and music collaborator, John Leventhal was also excited to see some of the close friends and fellow musicians who were such an important part of her career join her for a special event marking the exhibit’s opening.

As she reflects back on all she’s accomplished, Cash says she’s extremely proud of a couple of things.

“I worked hard to carve out my own spot and I built my own legacy of work that isn’t just mine. It’s rooted in my past, obviously, buy not just my dad, rooted all the way back to the Celtic songs of my Scottish ancestors. But I did work hard to make something on my own, so, I’m proud of that. And I’m proud that I raised my kids to be decent people.”

Cash shares four daughters with Rodney Crowell, and a son with Leventhal.

But even as the exhibit honors her extensive body of work, there’s much more to come. She’s a prolific writer who is constantly creating. She and her husband are writing the music for a stage play about Norma Rae (a theatrical version of the 1979 film about the textile union organizer), and she’s currently working on a new album.

“I’m halfway through making a new album. They’re mostly songs I’ve co-written with John. I write the lyrics, and he writes the music. I love collaborating with him.”

The exhibit Rosanne Cash: Time Is a Mirror is open now (through March 2026). Visitors can view it with the cost of regular admission at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.