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Carlene Carter
Biography Carlene Carter
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
