Carlene Carter, the daughter of famed Country/Americana couple Johnny Cash and June Carter, releases her album, Carter Girl. The album features a stellar lineup of guests including Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Vince Gill, Don Was, Sam Bush, Elizabeth Cook, Lori Carter Bennett and others. (Also the final track includes old vocals from Helen Carter, Anita Carter, June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash.) & wasproduced by Don Was (Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, The Rolling Stones), who also played bass on the album.
This album draws largely on themes of Carter’s renowned ancestry. Many of the songs are covers of old Carter Family songs with more updated/modern country styling. The idea is to show the progression of the Carter Family songwriting spanning many years.
Review:
A great legacy can be a blessing and a curse, and when your mother is
June Carter and your stepdad is Johnny Cash, you're going to have a lot to live
up to in the minds of most folks. Carlene Carter has built a pretty remarkable
career for herself as a vocalist, and after a dark period she made an impressive
comeback with 2008's Stronger. But it's rare when a critic or biographer
doesn't mention Carter's place in one of country music's founding families,
and on 2014's Carter Girl, she embraces their vital role in country
music's history while also putting her own stamp on their body of work. Ten of
the 12 songs on Carter Girl were written by members of the Carter Family, the
trio that wrote and recorded some of country's defining music in the ‘20s and
'30s, while one of the remaining selections, touching on the death of Johnny and
June, was adapted by Carlene Carter and Al Anderson from an old Carter Family
classic (“Lonesome Valley”), and the other is a poignant tale of her
grandparents’ scuffling days before they rose to stardom (“Me and the
Wildwood Rose”). When Carlene Carter sings about her family, one can hear the
love and respect in her voice, as she seems to be in awe of them as much as any
of us, and the two originals are deeply moving, but her interpretations of the
Carter Family's songbook are also heartfelt and impressive. There's as much
rock and blues as country in her takes on “Little Black Train,”
“Blackie's Gunman,” and “Blackjack David,” but Carter approaches these
songs as something fresh and vital, and she fills them with her own fearless
spirit, and when she takes a more traditional route on “Give Me the Roses”
and “I'll Be All Smiles Tonight,” she sounds strong yet compassionate,
melding her strength with the sorrowful tone of the lyrics. And producer Don Was
has brought out the best in Carter, matching her up with a top-notch band
(including Greg Leisz on steel and electric guitar and Jim Keltner on drums) and
bringing in Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, and Kris Kristofferson for memorable
vocal cameos. On Carter Girl, Carlene Carter has confronted the mighty legacy of
the Carter Family's songbook and allowed it to strengthen her music rather than
buckling under its weight, and this ranks with her finest recorded work to
date.
All Music Guide – Mark Deming