THE BOOK OF "THE LIST" (Items on Rosanne Cash, Wanda Jackson, Johnny Cash, Jessica Simpson, Kristofferson, Chesney, Darius Rucker, Sugarland)

Rosanne Cash, who inducted Wanda Jackson into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this week, has an ambitious effort slated for this fall.
"The List" is Rosanne's next album, pegged to an October landing, and it'll be comprised of 15 classic country ditties, all pulled from a list of 100 "essential country songs" that Johnny made for her when she was 18.
(Her dad) "said if I learned this list, I would be truly educated. We are culling about 15 songs from the list and re-interpreting them, with the respect of an archivist, the love of a daughter, and my own sensibility as a New Yorker for the last two decades."
Lefty Frizzell's "Long Black Veil" is the only essential Rosanne will tell us is coming (we'll have to wait for the rest of the pack).
Meanwhile, a companion book is being assembled parallel to the recording of the album, and it'll be at your favorite bookseller around the same time the disc arrives.

Come On (It's) Over: Jessica Simpson has been booted by her label, sort of.
The good folks at Sony say that Jess is still in their fold (for pop projects), despite being given the heave-ho from Sony Nashville's roster.
Meanwhile, it's possible Jessica could continue as a country artist, but on her own dime.

Live Poet's Society: Did Kris Kristofferson, "an amalgamation of John Wayne and Walt Whitman," have words (the four-letter kind) with Toby Keith at a Willie Nelson tribute concert earlier this decade?
Yeppers, sez Ethan Hawke in a Rolling Stone profile of Kris.
Meanwhile, Kris has no memory of said exchange.

...And Everyone in the Audience is Taking Home a One-Album Deal with Sony-Nashville!: Country Standard Time has a date, this Tuesday (4/14) for Oprah's country music show featuring Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, Sugarland and Carrie Underwood.