Rosanne Cash reaffirms bond between Scotland and America

Rosanne Cash, daughter of country legend Johnny Cash (below), returned to her ancestral family home in Fife yesterday to play a set at the Big Tent music festival in Falkland.

The Memphis-born Cash and her father are descendants of Scots settlers who originally came from the village of Strathmiglo, near Falkland.

Cash visits the area each year but yesterday was the first time she has played the festival, which is now in its fifth year. Speaking before her set the 55-year-old singer scorned the idea that recent events concerning the freeing of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi will have permanently harmed the relationship between America and Scotland.

"Why would it?" she said. "I live in New York City and I attended the Scottish Day parade (during New York Tartan Week] just a couple of months ago. The music, to me, is the big connection. Celtic music and Appalachian music are so close to each other, and both feed into modern American roots music. To me, that lineage goes way back, nothing breaks that."

Speaking of her return to Falkland, Cash - whose mother was her father's first wife Vivian Distin - said: "It's very emotional to be back. My dad came here in the 1980s to film a Christmas special in and around the Palace, so believe me, I'm very aware how proud he was of the connections with this spot."