Carlene Carter / November 15th, 2008 / The Triple Door / Seattle, Washington
On
November 15th, country music singer / songwriter Carlene Carter
opened her ninety-minute set at Seattle Washington’s The Triple Door with, “I
Love You Cuz,” a tune which featured some solid acoustic guitar riffs from
Carter, great boogie-woogie piano by Mike Emerson, and a vocal call and
response between Carter, Emerson and rhythm guitarist Sean Allen.
Much has been made over the years about how Carlene Carter’s family history reads like a who’s who of iconic music legends, her mother was June Carter, who along with her sisters, combined with their mother Maybelle Carter to form the Carter Family, who were responsible for establishing much of what country music was founded upon. Carlene Carter’s father was rockabilly / country star Carl Smith who charted fourteen top ten songs, five of which reached # 1 on the country music charts. Her stepfather was Johnny Cash, and he also requires no introduction to music fans. Due to her family heritage, what is often sadly overlooked is the fact that Carlene Carter has always been a gifted singer / songwriter who can stand on her own merits, and only faded from public view several years ago, when her former fast and hard living lifestyle derailed her career. Earlier this year, Carter released what critics are already referring to as, her best albums to date, Stronger, a CD which takes its title from the song of the same name, and which acknowledges the difficult passages that she navigated when she suffered several tragedies, including losing her mother, Johnny, sister Rosey Nix Adams, and lifelong friend Howie Epstein, all of whom passed away in 2003, but the song also lays claim that somehow through those tragedies, she has emerged as a stronger and better person.
Carter wove a self-deprecating humor into the dialogue between songs such as, “Come On Back,” from her 1990 album I Fell In Love, and her Grand Ole Opry style ballad, “To Change Your Heart,” a song about lost love. “To Change Your Heart,” is the third track from her new CD, Stronger, and again highlighted Emerson’s pretty piano solo. She also related humorous insights from touring with her Aunt Helen Carter, and how during the course of singing and playing guitar in Germany, Helen lost first one heel of her shoe and then the other, but never stopped singing or playing.
At different points during her concert, Carter talked candidly about her former battles with sobriety and living a wild life, but she did so in a matter of fact fashion, and always ended those discourses with examples of how she has turned her life around, and letting her audience know how much she cherishes her marriage, her children, her grandchildren and the family heritage which she shares.
Dressed in blue jeans and black boots, she crouched low over her black acoustic guitar, and with her long hair falling across her face, she strummed the opening riffs to, “Bitter End,” a ballad from her new CD Stronger. “Bitter End,” chronicles Carter’s own life, with the one exception which she noted during her concert, that being how happy she is now, and that this is not a bitter end for her. Sean Allen shone once again on guitar.
The love that Carter shares with her husband Joe Breen is evident in her tune, “Bring Love,” (Stronger) and she dedicated it to, “my sweetie pie.” The title comes from Breen’s words to the woman that he loves, when she asked him, what she needed to bring to the relationship.
One of the most moving moments of The Triple Door concert came as Carlene Carter introduced the song, “Wildwood Rose,” a song written about her younger sister Rosey, who was nicknamed Wildwood Rose. The ballad paints vivid word pictures of two blond haired children seated on the floorboards of Maybelle Carter’s car, as she winked at them in the rearview mirror, and the Carter Family toured throughout the United States. The song, “Wildwood Rose,” evokes strong emotions of warmth, pride, and the sense of loss that Carter still feels, since, as she says, her sister has, ‘gone to be with the angels.’
Carter sang, “Break My Little Heart,” a song she described as being written in the spirit of her father Carl Smith, and she performed a laid back rendition of, “Ring Of Fire,” penned by her mother June Carter, and made famous by her step-dad Johnny Cash. During, “Ring Of Fire,” Carter led her fans in singing the chorus.
Joe Breen joined Carter on stage for a duet, as they sang, “Takes One To Know One,” a song she wrote, when she was seventeen and gave to Johnny Cash as a gift, at a time when she did not have any money with which to purchase a present. Then, as she said, in the spirit of keeping June Carter and Johnny Cash alive, she and Breen performed one of the most famous Carter-Cash duets, “Jackson,” which she and Joe ended with a gentle kiss.
As Carlene Carter’s set was winding down, she rolled out two hits from the nineties, “Every Little Thing,” which rekindled the magic and memories of why she rose to fame so quickly, and “I Fell In Love,” during which she once again demonstrated she remains a very solid guitarist. Lengthy careers in the music industry, especially those which entail a lot of performances, and a bit of a wild ride, tend to take their toll on a singer’s voice, but like Willie Nelson, Carlene Carter’s vocals remain rich.
Carlene Carter recalled that when she was a little girl, all she wanted to do was to grow up and become a Carter girl, she did, but now she is her own woman. She has turned around her life, and she served up ninety minutes of pure entertainment and great music.
She ended her performance, seated at the grand piano, while quietly playing and singing the song, “Stronger,” dedicated to her sister Rosey’s memory.
Review by Joe Montague, all rights reserved protected by copyright
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Reviewed November 15th, 2008
Riveting Riffs Magazine would like to thank the management of The Triple Door for making it possible for us to review this concert
