Rosanne Cash returns to the Peninsula on the heels of one of the most poignant records of her career.

Rosanne Cash was getting on a New York City subway one early afternoon as a Latina woman nearby was getting off the A train. As Cash drifted by the woman, she thought she heard her whisper, “Ocho Dios” under her breath.

“The woman looked so sad,” Cash remembers. “I kept thinking, ‘Why would she say that?’”

After reading about a subway shooting that same day, Cash wrote the first verse to her Americana tale “8 Gods of Harlem” off her 2018 stunner, She Remembers Everything.

Cash can’t explain exactly why she recruited Elvis Costello and Kris Kristofferson to collaborate with her on the song, but “it just made sense” and they both obliged.

Cash told Costello and Kristofferson about the lady on the subway and presented a rough story featuring Cash as a mother, Kristofferson as a father and Costello as a brother. Each musician wrote their own verse and they recorded the song in a day. That’s what ended up on the record alongside a lush three-part harmony propelling the chorus.

“I’ve never had that kind of experience,” Cash says.

“8 Gods” is like a single scene from a painting that unfolds throughout the song, one moment captured in time. “As a songwriter, I’m always looking for people to give me ideas out there in the world,” Cash says. “That was a beautiful gift.”

The title track ballad, featuring Sam Phillips, is one of several potent new tunes that easily attach themselves to timely politics and news, namely Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in this one.

“It became clear that a woman’s memory is unfairly questioned and dealt with with suspicion,” Cash says. “It’s always been that way – it’s not new. Men’s memories are solid and trusted.”

Cash describes the strings-driven tune further as a “warning” and a song about who we are without experiencing trauma in our lives.

Meanwhile, “Undiscovered Country” centers around a savior who happens to be a woman who lays out the past, the present and the future.

“They say there are only five emotions, so it’s not as if we have original feelings, but the particulars are original and I think people bring their own lives to [the music] and fill in the blanks with their own particulars, which has real resonance,” Cash says. “That’s the best we can hope for in our music, isn’t it?”

ROSANNE CASH WITH JOHN LEVENTHAL 8pm Wednesday, Jan. 30. Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. $53-86. 649-1070, goldenstatetheatre.com