Beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present day, Cash has staked out a distinctive place in American music. Her songs have drawn on rockabilly rhythms, the truth-telling of folk-rock songwriters, West Coast country-rock energy, new wave flash and deeply rooted country music. A four-time Grammy winner, her hits include “Seven Year Ache,” “Blue Moon with Heartache,” “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me,” “I Don't Want to Spoil the Party,” “It Hasn’t Happened Yet,” “Tennessee Flat Top Box, “No Memories Hangin' Round” and “Never Be You,” among others. Throughout her career, she has maintained an unwavering artistic spirit and vision. In 2021, Cash became the first female composer to receive the MacDowell Medal, awarded since 1960 to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to American culture.

The Essential Collection creates a space, one in which Cash controls the stories she tells, the masks she wears, the light shed. These two discs represent over 40 years of work— of songwriting, singing, and collaboration, and of struggle, loss, renewal, insecurity, power, longing, and curiosity.