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Carlene Carter comes full circle with her latest CD, Carter Girl, on Rounder Records. As the daughter of country music legends June Carter Cash and Carl Smith, and granddaughter of “Mother” Maybelle Carter of the original historic Carter Family, Carlene said it was her lifelong goal to make this record. “The songs on the album cover three generations of Carter Family music,” she explains. “The original Carter Family (A.P., Sara, and Maybelle); Momma’s ‘Tall Lover Man‘ and Aunt Helen’s ‘Poor Old Heartsick Me‘; then two of mine: ‘Me and the Wildwood Rose‘ and a new song about Momma and John’s passing called ‘Lonesome Valley 2003.'”

“What Carlene Carter does on Carter Girl is significant. She doesn’t approach these old songs as sacred relics to be enshrined with pious respect. Rather, she treats them like living, vital pieces of art that can withstand being taken apart, thought about and re-imagined… In the process, she comes up with her own excellent piece of work… on its own terms, Carter Girl is as strong as anything Carter has ever recorded. It carries the heavy burden of history lightly, and yet never flinches at the seriousness of the lives she’s singing about, including her own.” – Ken Tucker, NPR