Carlene Carter Feature – Country Music People, January 1994
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w 0511-aa3? llililililil|[[Uillilltililil " (-arlene's hillbilly royalty wherher lr.-, stre wanl.s to be'or not,'; said Marty Stuart recently of his former sister-in-law. "She's really a descendant of the Queen of Country Music, Maybelle Carter." It's true. As the daughter of country stars Carl Smith and June Carter and the stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, Carlene Carter has a musical pedigree second to none. Yet she tumed her back on her native Nashville in order to spend eight years honing a keen rock'n'roll sensibility in post-punk London. The result was that while her half-sister Rosanne Cash has evolved in[o a country superstar over the past decade, it has taken Carlene almost that long just to gain recognition. But in 1990 she re-emerged on Reprise Records with the raunchy I Fell In Love and found success again last year with the quintessential country-rock albtm, Little Lov e Le tt er s, both produced by her current beau, Howie Epstein. She's come a long way from Madison, Tennessee where she was born Rebecca Carlene Smith on September 26,1955. She took to music early, playing piano from six years old and taking guitar lessons from her grandmother, the legendary Maybelle Carter, at age 10. "She didn't really teach me my first, stuff," says Carlene, setting the record straight. "My Mom did. And then my Grandma taught me more things later. I didn't really realise the impact she'd had on country music, or that she was anything other than just a really cool grandma who went fishin' with me and Hillbilly Queen taught me how to play poker and all those really fun things that grandmothers indulge their grandaughters in. "I got, a really good upbringin' from CARLENE CARTER her," she continues. "And then when I got interested in playin' the guitar it was just a natural thing for her 'cause all of talks to Jeremy Isaac her kids had done that. It went without sayin'." Some might think that following in the footsteps of a country music legend was a pretty tough road to travel. "Ifyou ever Tiffany, but the marriage ended in Around this time she met Jack Routtr, really sat down and strrted thinkin' divorce two years later. On leaving a writer with Johnny Cash's publishing about that, it would be so overwhelming college, she worked for a while as a company. Within ttrree months ttrey you might wanna run and hide," she model, joining her motier and stepfatler were married and had a son, John laughs, "so you just don't think of it in on the road later on, and singing on Jackson Routh, but this union, too, was those terms, because it's just your family. Johnny Cash' s curiously-titled family short-lived, and the couple separated in "The Carter Family just got their album of 1974,Tlu Junkie AndThe 1977.The same year Carlene moved to (postage) stamp, and I look at that stamp Juicehead Minus Me. London with her new boyfriend Rodney and I look at my little Grandma's face on "Actually, I didn't really work with Crowell and made an eponymous upbeat there and it just blows me away. She just them on a serious basis," says Carlene, debut album that boasted contributions didn't have any idea of what she had going on lo recall some fond memories. from ex-Brinsley Schwarz bass player done. She was just this liale woman "As a kid, joining in w1s a real normal and West London pub-rock luminary from the mountains of West Virginia." process. Travelling with them, they Nick Lowe, as well as Graham Parker After leaving Henderson High School always included us kids, myself, my and the Rumour. The album also where she had been a cheerleader, cousin David, my cousin Laurie or my included Crowell's Never Together, But Carlene was maried at 16 !o Joe sister Rosie, whoever was ttrere. We'd Close Sometimrs, which was a minor hit Simpkins and had a daughter named all jump out there and do our thing." in the UK. JANUARY 1994 COUNTRY MUSIC PEOPLE 33 and Mary-ChaPin "One of the guys had worked with Rumour, Elvis Costello and Dr' Nanci Griffith it can now be seen as a Brinsley Schwartz," she says, naming no Feelgood, before forming Rockpile with Carpenter, blueprint for what would later be called names, "and he had this vision of putting Dave Edmunds. It was therefore not produce her New Country. a real straight ahead country blueblood surprising that he should As a result, by 1980 Carlene was with a British rock band and seeing what next album, Musical ShaPes, in 1980. being hailed as one of the queens of the the hybrid would be like. And I was very Despite t}re influence of some of post-rockabilly age. Her next album, interested in that because at that time London's heaviest rockers, Carlene Bhte Nun,was an explicit celebration of country music was kinda goin' in a didn't stray too far from her roots, as subordinated her countrY direction that I wasn't interested in. It included on Shapes were a rocked-up, sex that influences to Lowe's obsession for was pretty milk toasty kind of, and a lot synth-backed version of Johnny Cash's 1960s R&B. Hardly surprising, as Lowe of long dresses and high collars. It was Ring Of Fire. a duet with Dave Edmunds had co-written nearlY half just not really what I of the songs on it. It also wanted to do, and that's spawned a single, Do /t how I ended up in In A Heartaclre, which England. made the US countrY "I came there to work chart that year. But, with Dave Edmunds, and despite soulful helP from I actually ended uP doin' Squeeze's Paul Carrack, a record with the the album was nol as Rumour. It seemed like a well-received as her completely idiotic thing earlier outings. to be doin', but creatively "Basically, I was just it was really fun." searching for a certain So how did New Wave cross between what I felt London compare with her naturally and what was conventional Nashville happening in the world. It background? was normal for me to "It was so exciting and want to ht in somePlace creative," she recalls and I didn't fit in countrY, animatedly. "I was given so the record comPanies total freedom to were suggesting that I go experiment, to do more rock. It was just whatever I wanted to do. kind of a dizzy time." Nashville's always been Just when she seemed really big on parameters to be rejecting her and setting boundaries on country roots for good their artists: 'Oh, don't go and all, Carlene joined over there because radio family won't like it,' or'Don't, the Carter-Cash on stage at the WembleY do tliis' and 'Don't do Country Music Festival that'. And going to their 1981 UK London I was suddenly during tour t0 singWill The completely free. I could Be Unbroken.In do anything I wanted to. Circle meantime, her own And that lasted for a the pretty long time." live shows were always class, and included a Made in New York, first almost mandatory her follow-up album, now of musicians from Two SidesTo Every lineup Rumour and Woman, saw her The although by sruggling with a series of Rockpile, time her marriage to dance tracks, and it was this rocks. while promoting it at a Lowe was on the C Bon New York club that she introduced the on Richard Dobson'sBaby Ride Easy (a 1983 saw the release of C'Est songSwap-Meat Rag with the now hit in the US) and the CarterFamilY on Epic. Originally tobe calledGold her last notorious pronouncement, "If that classic, Foggy M o untain To p. How Miner's Daughter,it would be seven years doesn't put the c**t back into country difficult was it to achieve a balance album until / F ell I n Love got where it, music, nothing will." between post-punk rock and Pure later. "Eventually, it to she recalls, This earned her Playboy magazine's country? worked against me," rePlies with "because I did four or five albums over Quote of the Year Award, but Johnny "ltwasn'I difficult," she just kept getting further and Cash and June Carter, who were in the an incredulous laugh. "It was that it there where I where I felt the most audience at the time, were not amused. didn't fly in radio, or in Nashville. They further away from 1979 was also the year that Nick wouldn't accept me as a country artist in comfortable." year won Lowe became her third husband. In 1979 or 1980. They said if I'd ever just The following Carlene waitress in the addition to having his own hits with / sraighten up and do a sraight country acclaim for her role as a Boys And Dinettes LoveThe Sound Of Breaking Glass, album,I might be good." London castof Pump Crackin' UpudCruelTo Be Kind, The album also included her own starring Paul Jones and Kiki Dee. She based on one of Lowe had produced many of Stiff AppalachianEyes andToo Bad About also made a short film Too Records' early artists including The Sandy.In the aftermath of k.d. lang, the songs from Shapes entitled 34 couNrRY Mustc PEoPLE JANUARY 1994 Drur*To Remtmber, which was seen at is due not only to Carlene's vocal with homes in Nashville and on the West the London Film Festival, and was to performances and material, of which all Coast, having finally made her peace star in the London musical, Angry but one track was co-written by her, but with the country music establishment she Housewives, in 1986.