Rosanne Cash: ‘The List’
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When Rosanne Cash’s father, you-know-who, gave her a list of 100 songs he considered essential for her to know, his Beatles-loving daughter hoarded it for 35 years. It took brain surgery and her husband, John Leventhal, to finally help her decide to share that legacy.

Yet it’s not clear why, out of that 100, she chose so many she doesn’t seem to have quite enough of a connection with, like Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On,” which she interprets, but never owns. And on “Heartaches By the Number” and “Long Black Veil,” it’s hard to tell that’s Elvis Costello and Jeff Tweedy, respectively, on backing vocals. Bruce Springsteen is more evident on “Sea of Heartbreak,” and she brings “500 Miles” all the way home with daughter Chelsea Crowell. But “Motherless Children” is far too upbeat, and Exene Cervenka’s version of “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow,” done as an Appalachian folk tune on her new disc, sounds far more authentic than Cash’s cover. — Lynne Margolis
By if you like: Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams

Chuck Prophet: ‘¡Let Freedom Ring!’
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Angst, drama, fear, passion, sin, redemption … these forces propel “¡Let Freedom Ring!” like pistons churning a Mustang motor as Prophet slams the gas pedal, gunning for an escape he never quite makes. The songs percolate with urgency; you can hear it in the stinging chicken-pickin’ of “Where the Hell is Henry?,” in the staccato rhythm of “Hot Talk,” in the big-build blues-rocker “You and Me Baby (Holding On),” an American lament if there ever was one. It’s even in the gentle “Barely Exist,” another compelling political commentary.

From the country-rock lilt of the sad “What Can a Mother Do” (with Sara Watkins’ lyrical fiddle and vocals), to the title tune’s Rolling Stones-ish funk/twang, the ‘60s/Springsteenish “American Man,” the Tom Petty-quoting “Good Time Crowd” and the pretty pop of “Love Won’t Keep Us Apart,” all saturated with his ever-stellar guitar (and occasionally overdone backing vocals), “¡Let Freedom Ring!” is quintessential Prophet — and definitely worth heeding. — Lynne Margolis
By if you like: Alejandro Escovedo, Warren Zevon

Caroline Herring: ‘Golden Apples of the Sun’
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There’s no greater challenge to an artist than making a successful record that is essentially solo acoustic. In this stripped-down format, the songs are in their most exposed form, with only a voice and an instrument (usually guitar or piano). There are no drums or programmed rhythms to give songs a groove, no additional guitars, bass, keyboards or other instruments to reinforce, embellish or sweeten the root melody. Songs have to be especially sturdy to hold up in this setting.
Caroline Herring rises to this challenge on “Golden Apples of the Sun.” Going mostly solo acoustic, she delivers 12 mainly gentle gems that work because of her ability to create strong, and sometimes exceptional, vocal melodies. This enables “Golden Apples of the Sun” to quietly soar, where many albums of this sort are basically a snore.
That said, the guess here is that at least some of the songs could have benefited from some judiciously applied additional instrumentation. That’s the case with “A Little Bit Of Mercy,” one of the few songs to be supplemented by percussion and electric guitar. Still, Herring deserves kudos for being brave enough to trust that her songs would stand up in such a simple setting. – Alan Sculley
Buy if you like: Norah Jones, Nanci Griffith

Robert Earl Keen: ‘The Rose Hotel’
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Like his pal Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen constantly finds new ways of expressing pathos and humor through the lives of drifters, dreamers and lovers. He sings what he knows, but he’s a story weaver, too; a teller of tales, some tall, some true.
Keen’s twangier than Lovett, and also rocks harder, notably on “Throwin’ Rocks,” with wailin’ blues vocals by Deani Flemmings, and on the Billy Bob Thornton-assisted “10,000 Chinese Walk into a Bar.” The latter, like “The Man Behind the Drums,” an ode to Levon Helms, also contains hefty doses of plucked instruments (and Bukka Allen on “Drums” keys). He even delivers a reggae groove on the appropriately lazy “Something I Do.” And you’ve gotta love lines like, “There’s wankers and bankers in hell,” from “Goodbye Cleveland.” But the wry hilarity of the country-rooted “Wireless in Heaven,” complete with fiddle, banjo, Dobro and gui-tar breakdown, makes this “Hotel” a perfect destination. — Lynne Margolis
Buy if you like: Lyle Lovett, Townes Van Zandt

DVD
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Various Artists: “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live” (Time Life)
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is turning 25 and is showcasing that anniversary with star-studded concerts and the release of a coffee table book and a 9 DVD set, titled “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live.”
One of the discs is made up of performances from 1995’s  “The Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. The other eight are packed with performances, backstage and rehearsal footage and induction/acceptance speeches from the annual ceremonies that began in 1986 up through Metallica’s induction earlier this year.
Thankfully, the discs aren’t presented chronologically and the speeches are available separately from the music. But they’re grouped under loose, if sometimes hard-to-fathom themes.
The first DVD, for example, is titled “Light My Fire” and is heavy on ‘60’s and early ‘70s hippie-era rock. But it opens and closes with The Beatles and includes the first of many appearances by Bruce Springsteen, who is a multiple presenter and performs in the “jam band,” with “friends” of the likes of John Fogerty and U2 or with his group.
Those star pairings are a large part of the fun and got much of the attention at the exclusive, non-televised early ceremonies held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel. Once the VH-1 cameras arrived, the shows changed, becoming tighter and more produced. But it’s just more fun to watch, as it happened at one point, Johnny Cash shoved to the back of a packed stage, playing rhythm guitar behind Keith Richards, Bo Diddley and Bob Dylan.
There are some magic moments captured on the DVDs: The Mamas and the Papas are thrilling on “California Dreamin’;” Little Richard is brilliant singing Otis Redding; Green Day perfectly channels The Ramones; and Fogerty, Joel, John Mellencamp and Joan Jett team up to do The Dave Clark 5  right.
That said, the set, like the hall itself, is problematic. There is a single DVD of African-American inductees, primarily ‘60s and ‘70s soul artists. The most cohesive of the discs, “I’ll Take You There,” features great performances by Franklin, Solomon Burke, the Rev. Al Green and Parliament Funkadelic. But the fact that seven of the eight discs contain few black performers says much about the makeup and orientation of the hall.
There isn’t a separate disc for female performers. But the hall as white boy’s club is seen in the dearth of women in the set and among the inductees.
It is, however, a fact that the membership of the hall represents the establishment view of rock and its legacy – which gives DVD set an audience and has made the hall to prosper for 25 years. – L. Kent Wolgamott