Carter Girl Carlene Carter

• 1Little Black Train02:50
• 2Give Me The Roses03:28
• 3Me And The Wildwood Rose04:31
• 4Blackie’s Gunman04:24
• 5I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight04:47
• 6Poor Old Heartsick Me02:41
• 7Troublesome Waters05:18
• 8Lonesome Valley 200305:29
• 9Tall Lover Man03:55
• 10Gold Watch And Chain03:17
• 11Black Jack David02:49
• 12I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow02:44
• Total Runtime46:13

Info for Carter Girl

„Carter Girl“, is the first album of new recordings this decade from Americana legend Carlene Carter. The album was produced by Don Was, mixed by Bob Clearmountain and is, in a very literal way, Carlene's personal homage to her Carter Family roots and to the the ethos that has been the foundation of much of America's music for almost 90 years.

As the daughter of June Carter Cash and country music great Carl Smith, the granddaughter of Mother Maybelle Carter and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, Carlene says it has been her lifelong goal to make this record. 'The songs on the album cover three generations of Carter Family music,' she notes. In fact, she shares writing credit with A.P. Carter on 'Lonesome Valley 2003,' an updating of the Carter Family patriarch's 'Lonesome Valley' that reflects the loss of Carlene's mother, sister and stepfather eleven years ago. The album's first track, just out, is 'Little Black Train,' that was first recorded by The Carter Family in 1935.

The album revisits both classic Carter Family repertoire as well as original songs that relate to Carlene's connection with her musical and familial roots. Willie Nelson guests on 'Troublesome Waters' and Kris Kristofferson joins Carlene on 'Black Jack David' while the unmistakable voice of Vince Gill is heard harmonizing on 'Lonesome Valley 2003.' 'Blackie's Gunman' is a duet with Elizabeth Cook, whom Carlene calls her 'adopted sister.' Cook is heard on six of the album's twelve tracks. The participation of Lorrie Carter Bennett, daughter of Anita Carter, as well as Joe Breen, Carlene's husband, underscores the continuing Carter Family connective tissue that the album celebrates.

Musicians on the Carter Girl sessions that took place last year in Los Angeles and Nashville include Jim Keltner, Rami Jaffee, Greg Leisz, Sam Bush, Mickey Rafael, Blake Mills as well as producer Don Was on bass. The guitar of the late 'Cowboy' Jack Clement is heard on 'Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow' and there are vocal contributions from generations past -- Carlene's aunts Helen and Anita Carter as well as June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash on the chorus of 'I Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow'-- that make Carter Girl an evocative collection, bringing music history and the roots of today's Americana movement to life for contemporary listeners.

Carlene is well aware that she is doing her part to honor those who came before her in her own way. 'From the day I first touched a guitar or piano,' she recalls, 'My mom said, 'You have to carry on the legacy of the Carter Family music. It's supposed to be passed on and passed around.'' Nearly a century after the Carter Family's first recordings changed the course of American music, that circle remains not only unbroken but strengthened by Carlene Carter, who is forever and most happily, a Carter Girl.

Carlene Carter
has always straddled the line between country and rock. Daughter of the legendary and beloved June Carter Cash and Country Music Hall of Famer Carl Smith, and stepdaughter of the enduring Johnny Cash, she is heir to one of the richest musical legacies of all time.

Long known as a Nashville "wild child," the young Carlene Carter embarked on a series of ricochet romances, musical experiments, and headline-grabbing escapades that made her one of the most colorful characters in the country-rock pantheon. A stint in London resulted in marriage to rock star Nick Lowe and to her acclaimed 1980 album Musical Shapes, forerunner of a sound Nashville would come to embrace in the 1990s.

When her "party girl" era ended, Carlene returned to Nashville. In the mid- 80s, she joined her mother and aunts as a member of The Carter Family. Touring with the Johnny Cash Show, Carter embraced her country roots, and the prodigal daughter began to make her own records again, this time on Music Row. In the 1990s, she sailed to the top of the country charts with such jaunty tunes as the GRAMMY nominated "I Fell in Love," as well as "Come on Back," and "Every Little Thing."

Carter’s long-awaited current release, Stronger, represents a mature melding of her country and rock influences. Her witty personality, ready smile, and country-hip manner continue to endear diverse audiences.

Carlene’s career has occasionally sputtered through the emotional whirlwind of her existence, but she has confidently reclaimed her focus. She boasts a new love, new songs, a new record, a new sound, a new manager, a new booking agency, and a renewed outlook on life. For Carlene Carter, the past is the past. And today begins her Stronger future.

“Carlene Carter's long-awaited return fluctuates between the sassy country-rock of her past and reflective acoustic-country tunes about her present.” – Associated Press

“She has written some of the catchiest country-rock songs out now.” – NY Daily News

“She puts her whole life into her music in a way few artists dare or accomplish. Not just snippets of a diary. I mean her life experience, her guts, and her whole psyche.” – CMT

“Carter invests the music with the same impeccable country heartbeat and firebrand pop impulses that defined her earliest work while stirring in heartbreaking colors that can only come from maturity and reflection. ...it may well stand as one of the best albums of this year.” – Country Standard Time

“By fusing catchy choruses with down-home twang and sweet harmonies, Carter deftly straddles the fence between classic country and pop.” - Toronto Sun

This album contains no booklet.