(This article is from the archives of Baby Ride Easy, the Carlene Carter fan site run by Doug Stalnaker 2003-2008.)
Carlene Carter exudes confidence. "Good things come in threes," she says, sipping on a beer. "That's my motto."
There seems to be a lot of truth in Carlene's philosophy. Last year she married British rock star Nick Lowe (her third marriage) and released her third album, "Musical Shapes"--a widely acclaimed LP, produced by Lowe, which has become her biggest commercial success yet.
It took three tries, but it all came together for Carlene on "Musical Shapes." And at age 25 she's now being hailed as a prime purveyor of a new form of music--New Wave Country.
"It's the first album I've heard that's actually country but 'rock' played," Carlene explains. "It's a new sound. They play acoustic guitars but they play them like they were electric. The only time there's an electric guitar is on the solos. A lot of the music comes from the old gospel songs I learned from Momma, Grandma, and Aunt Helen."
Grandma is the late matriarch of country music, Mother Maybelle Carter, who taught Carlene how to play guitar when she was 5 years old, and Momma is June Carter Cash, wife of Johnny. Undoubtedly, Carlene's upbringing--learning tunes like "Wildwood Flower" from Mother Maybelle and being exposed to mountain music from a family synonymous with the name--had a lot to do with the musical textures she pieced together in later years.
Ironically, Carlene took bluegrass and country music for granted and growing up she instead listened to "the Yardbirds, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Van Morrison, and Bob Dylan." It was after she moved out of her Nashville home and got married when she was 17 (Johnny and June were married when Carlene was 12) that she began to really appreciate and assimilate the music that was shaped and popularized by her family.
"Momma was always real encouraging, she was always ready to teach me, but she wan't pushy or anything like that," Carlene says. "They always say it's bad to learn from your mom. You might be more natural with someone else, whereas you want to please your mom so much you might try to imitate her. I really learned the most from my Aunt Helen and Grandma whenI went on the road with the Carter Family six months before Grandma died."
Consciously or not, the Carter family tradition was ingrained in Carlene, but as she seriously developed her music she took pains to expand and explore rather than merely imitate. The same can be said of her approach to songwriting. She had dabbled in songwriting for a long time, but when Emmylou Harris recorded "Easy From Now On," a tune Carlene co-wrote with Susannah Clark, it proved to be her big break. Soon after she ran in to Andy Wickham, a Warner Bros. executive responsible for signing Emmylou. He was intrigued enough by Carlene's writing and singing to sign her as well.
"I can say without any weird feelings that being a Carter didn't have anything to do wih my being signed," she says. "Once you prove that you're talented in your own way they tend to forget about you being Johnny Cash's step-daughter."
Carlene currently lives in England with her husband and two children. Tiffany, 8, and Jackson, 4, are from a previous marriage. (After seeing step-sister Rosanne Cash's new baby, Carlene has been pondering a new addtion to the family. "Remember, good things come in threes.") She remains close to Johnny and June, a continent away. In fact, Johnny Cash came to visit them last Christmas and wound up doing some recording in their home studio.
"It ended up being on his latest record," Carlene says. "Nick produced it but at the time he didn't think he was really producing it. He just though he was playing bass and having fun. John's like that. He's taught me a lot of old songs. I've learned a lot from him."
Apparently it takes more than the Atlantic Ocean and the separation of a generation to break the continuation of a great musical heritage. And now she's successfully blending both her rock and country influences.
For her first album the energy was there, but the experience, confidence, and direction was not.
"I didn't have any conception of how the first album should be, "she says. "I sort of wanted it to be real rocking, heavy drums and bass with country singing. It was only six weeks from the time I was signed until the album was finished, a real rush job. I only met the musicians once before we went into the studio. I learned a lot from that album though. It was really an experiment."
Not a constrained experiment, mind you, since Carlene utilized the services of English rocker Graham Parker's band, The Rumour, on the LP. It was an odd sort of mix; the tight, seasoned rock and roll band and the young green singer. If she didn't really know what her concept was, it would reason, neither would anybody else. Which was the case. The LP was not well received.
The second time around, after a failed debut, Carlene felt some pressure to come up with a more cohesive sound, something that would sell. But again, the chemistry was just not right.
"The second one was trying to sound too commercial," Carlene says. "They didn't have a clue what I was about. 'Do It In A Heartbeat,' (the single) they thought was a country song and it sounded like this old Motown thing. I did rock and roll, but it was slick, which I don't even think is rock and roll. It was just this fast stuff where I sang really loud."
Part of the problem with her second effort was a last minute shuffling of producers and still an inability to firmly get a handle on her individual style. Hanging out with and finally marrying Nick Lowe rectified that. In Lowe, Carlene Carter not only found a soul mate ("I knew all along we would always be together," she says) but a musical confederate. Lowe has produced several of new wave pioneer Elvis Costello's albums and along with Dave Edmunds, Lowe formed the nucleus of the popular English rock band Rockpile. Both Lowe and Edmunds played on "Musical Shapes" and Edmunds sings with Carlene on the single, "Baby Ride Easy."
"It was sort of a rockpile album with Carlene," she says. "This album was the easiest to make. I didn't make it until I was ready.
"It was great working with Nick," Carlene says. "When we got in the studio we didn't hardly see anything different. We both had the same goal in mind. When it comes down to it I hired him as my producer so I listened to what he had to say. He has the final say as producer but not necessarily as husband," she laughs.
Mark Rose - CountryStyle (1980)