Carlene Carter Fan Club: Music

L.A. WEEKLY - July 16, 1993

"Why is this woman not huge?" asked a friend who'd recently seen Carlene Carter for the first time. Well, she is kind of huge, having won nominations, if not awards, in categories like Country Female Performance and Best New Female Vocalist for her 1990 album, "I Fell In Love." "Kind of" ain't diva-hood, however. She's been a woman on the verge forever, and new only if you don't count ancient albums like the acclaimed "Musical Shapes," which slipped into the chasm between country and rock radio 13 years ago. Carlene has inherited a beautiful, clear voice from the deep end of the gene pool. When Carlene brings that voice to a gospel song like "Hallelujah In My Heart," she's come full circle back to the "days of Grandma and her girls," as she sang on "I Fell In Love." And when she applies it to a ballad, the song doesn't turn into mush, but something delicate and soulful like "The Sweetest Thing" (from "I Fell In Love," or an acoustic lullaby such as the new record's "Unbreakable Heart"). In a Nashville full of adult-contemporary divas, her good taste is a blessing, no matter how huge she is--or isn't.
MARK SCHONE

REQUEST

The love affair here is between Carter's high, lonesome voice and great songs that range from bluegrass gospel to rockabilly updates.
KEITH MOERER

PEOPLE

Carter, bottom line, is a skilled pop-rock singer (who cowrites most of her songs) and her latest record is Top 40 fine.
CRAIG TOMASHOFF

COUNTRY MUSIC

No female country singer has ever seemed as comfortable with an emphatic backbeat as Carter, and as she bomps her way through the catchy country-rock numbers on her new album, "Little Love Letters," her delight proves contagious. Carter's octave-climbing optimism is persuasive when she declares that anything is possible in this "World Of Miracles." Even better is Benmont Tench's simple wish for an "Unbreakable Heart": the tune boasts the same kind of jazzy chords that Willie Nelson wrote into "Crazy" and Patsy Cline picked up on, and Carter sings it just that classily. All in all, "Little Love Letters" marks a major step forward for Carter into the first rank of country singers.
GEOFFREY HIMES

CD REVIEW - September 1993

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Sound Quality * * * *
Carlene Carter doesn't concern herself much with how things are done in Nashville. She records in California with a rock'n'roll bass player (Howie Epstein of The Heartbreakers). She does it on her schedule (it's been three years since her last album, an eternity in Music City). Daring to be different, "Little Love Letters" delivers a big payoff to country and pop music fans alike.
PAUL KINGSBURY

COUNTRY AMERICA - January 1994

These songs form a marvelous, eclectic quilt of colors and patterns. Overall, it's exhilarating--almost like what The Beatles did with the famous "Sgt. Pepper's" album, only more homespun and less cryptic.
NEIL POND

EXPRESSION (Sweden's Largest Daily Newspaper)

Carlene Carter started the new wave of country music. Her album, "Little Love Letters," still continues to astound us.