Photo Credit: Pamela Springsteen

Renowned singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash will mark the 30th anniversary of her landmark album The Wheel with an expanded, remastered deluxe edition, dubbed The Wheel 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, set for release on November 17, 2023. The impending collection features the original, remastered album alongside a second live LP featuring Cash’s 1993 Austin City Limits appearance and a rare Columbia Records Radio Hour broadcast.

The initial LP was recorded in the early ‘90s when Cash embarked on a new chapter in New York City. The set was co-produced by the musician and her husband, a six-time Grammy-winning producer and songwriter, John Leventhal. The Wheel sparked a reinvention of Cash’s sound and career and represents the beginning of a lifelong creative partnership between the power couple. 

The formulation of The Wheel began when Cash wrote seven tunes for the album, which she then performed for Leventhal. Included were the title song, along with “You Won’t Let Me In,” “Change Partners,” “Sleeping in Paris,” “From the Ashes,” “Roses in the Fire,” and “If There’s a God on My Side.” Cash remarked via a press release, “I told him they were ‘elemental’— full of references to the natural world: wind, fire, rain, moon, snow. I wasn’t even sure what I was talking about when I said it, but I had noticed that I was using a lot of nature metaphors, many of them violent. He sort of cocked his head, a little confused, and said, ‘Okay. But are they good songs?’”

The sessions that spawned from The Wheel were “a thrilling mix of truly gifted people,” remembers Rosanne, who was joined by Benmont Tench, Bruce Cockburn, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Marc Cohn and Steuart Smith, among others. “John and I grew closer with every session, and by the end of the record we were a couple. The music was both a revelation and the revelator.”

“It’s satisfying and sweet to re-introduce The Wheel in this 30th anniversary year,” adds Rosanne. “I can’t look back at that time and separate the music from Love. What was true then has become more true and more alive every day since.” The Wheel is the latest set to be included in RumbleStrip Records’ recently-acquired catalog of Cash’s master recordings from 1978-1993. In early 2024, the label will also release Leventhal’s first solo album. 

Listen to the remastered version of “The Wheel” and watch the live performance from Austin City Limits from July 26, 1993.  Formats include the deluxe 2LP 180-gram vinyl edition, the original remastered LP, and a 2CD deluxe edition, available for pre-order here.

Scroll down to view the complete tracking list. 

The Wheel 30th Anniversary Track Listing:

SIDE 1 

1. The Wheel 

2. Seventh Avenue

3. Change Partners 

4. Sleeping in Paris 

5. From the Ashes 

SIDE 2

1. The Truth about You 

2. The Tears

3. Falling Down

4. Roses in the Fire 

5. Fire of the Newly Alive

6. If There’s a God on My Side 

SIDE 3 – LIVE AT AUSTIN CITY LIMITS (7/26/1993) 

1. The Wheel

2. Seventh Avenue

3. I’ll Change For You

4. Crescent City (Lucinda Williams cover)

5. Sleeping In Paris

SIDE 4 – COLUMBIA RECORDS RADIO HOUR (5/16/1993) 

1. Seventh Avenue

2. Roses In The Fire

3. The Truth About You

4. What We Really Want

5. Wouldn’t It Be Loverly (from My Fair Lady)

6. The Wheel