Carlene Carter makes her Wolf Trap debut performing numbers from “Stronger,” her latest CD dedicated to her family and evocative of her own philosophy: “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
The daughter of June Carter Cash and Carl Smith of County Music Hall fame, and the step-daughter of Johnny Cash, she grew up amid the rival sounds of acoustic bluegrass and pop radio. After mastering the piano and guitar at an early age, she joined the illustrious Carter Family act on stage until striking out on her own at 20 with a self-titled album.
“I grew up with all kinds of music and was never given any boundaries, so I didn’t really start listening to country music except what my family sang until I was living in England in my 20s,” she says. “My favorites artists were performers like Janis Joplin, Eric Clapton and Ray Charles.”
As a result, her compositions are rich with Nashville’s down-home qualities tastily spiced by infectious rock beats. The re-issue in 2007 of her 1990 album, “I Fell in Love,” brought a Grammy nomination for Best County Female Vocal Performance, proof that her sophisticated take on country had arrived.
“Stronger,” her first new album in a decade, touches everyone who hears it. Carter’s emotional tribute to the mother, sister and stepfather she lost in 2003 reveals the personal strengths that allow her to face the future with joy.
The zestful beats of “On to You” and “Light of Your Love” contrast neatly with the crisp little waltz of “It Takes One To Know Me,” the piece she wrote at age 19 as a birthday present to Cash. There is the heartfelt drama of “Judgment Day” and the beautiful word pictures she paints in “Spider Lace.”
“Over the years, I go back to certain periods of my life,” she says. “I wrote that song thinking about a time when I was infatuated with a boy and sitting on a porch watching the sun shine through a spider web. All songs make you feel good, even if they help a sad part of your life get healing. I have a lifetime to draw from, and I have yet to write a song about my mother’s passing.”
Carter learned from her mother and grandparents to never take things for granted. The Carter Family was all about the love of performing and singing together to share the unique vocal timbre and the spiritual bond. Even when they were not feeling well, they went on stage smiling and were instantly energized by the music.
“From my dad, Carl Smith, I learned to never take myself too seriously” she says. “He said this is a business and you must keep on the sunny side and be yourself at all time. It’s a spiritual thing and I know that I have the best of all worlds. I’m able to write music because a ray of heaven comes down to speak to my heart and it comes out of my mouth.”
If you go
Carlene Carter performs music from “Stronger,” her latest release honoring her legendary family
Where: The Barns at Wolf Trap
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Info: $25; 877-965-3872; 703-938-2404; wolftrap.org
