{"id":13239,"date":"2020-03-04T00:06:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T07:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=13239"},"modified":"2020-03-04T00:06:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T07:06:34","slug":"keeping-the-music-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/04\/keeping-the-music-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping The Music Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlene Carter to play The Argyros<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY DANA DUGAN\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Carlene Carter, a member of the first family of country music, will play at The Argyros on Sunday night. Photo credit: Russell Baer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is kismet in the air. Within a couple of weeks, the Wood River Valley will be graced by two members of an extended family of legendary musicians. First up, appearing at the Argyros Performing Arts Center in Ketchum, on Saturday, March 7, will be Carlene Carter, the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith. Following that will be her stepsister Roseanne Cash, daughter of Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian, on Sunday, March 8.<\/p>\n

Carter grew up surrounded by the first family of country music, in Tennessee. Her grandparents were Ezra and Maybelle Carter, whose cousin Sara was married to A.P. Carter, Ezra\u2019s brother. Together A.P., Maybelle and Sara arranged, wrote and performed country music that was close to the ground, born in the red dirt of Tennessee, and eventually recorded by the Victor Talking Co. in 1927 as The Carter Family. Over the ensuing years, The Carter Family has included an evolving cast of characters that eventually included Mother Maybelle and her three daughters, June (Carlene\u2019s mother), and her sisters, Anita and Helen.<\/p>\n

Carlene Carter began her career singing with The Carter Family at 17, and has been releasing music for more than four decades. She\u2019s on a short tour now with a two-person backup band, and a new album soon to be released, \u201cThe Carter Family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are five generations of us playing on that,\u201d she said in her warm Southern voice. \u201cTwo generations have already passed. It\u2019s an interesting record, and not normal\u2014oh, this is a single for the radio\u2014it\u2019s an event kind of record. My cousin Lori, my brother John Carter Cash, and I, other cousins, at the end we sing \u2018Will The Circle Be Unbroken.\u2019\u201d [Though there is an original version, the seminal one was written by A.P. Carter and released in 1935 by The Carter Family.]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re together, still carrying on the legacy,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThere\u2019ll never be another record like it. My grandmother said to me, \u2018When we\u2019re gone, you have to keep the music alive, for Sara and A.P., too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter will be on the road for a couple of weeks, including a stayover to hang out in Sun Valley, before going on to more shows in Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell a lot of stories,\u201d she said, laughing about her shows. \u201cI never know what it\u2019s going to be, stories about the family\u2014I can do that like crazy. I try to include the audience. They\u2019ll have fun, and I may not be back. I\u2019m not exactly a spring chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to go places people don\u2019t go and play that much. They appreciate it and have a good time. I\u2019ve done Carnegie Hall and big theatre, but I like meeting all the people. Country people are my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter said she received the key to the City of Sun Valley about seven years ago when she was here for an anniversary trip with her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really flattered,\u201d she said. \u201cWe went skiing and had a wonderful time, stayed at the Lodge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter spent a few years on the road with John Mellencamp on his Plain Spoken tour, both as a support act and joining him on stage nightly to perform duets. She also played a role in the touring production of \u201cGhost Brothers of Darkland County,\u201d the Southern gothic musical play written by Stephen King, T Bone Burnett and Mellencamp.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my grandkids is a bass player, and one is playing drums. My daughter was more pop, now she\u2019s kind of coming around. They are kind of coming around to our legacy, the music. My sister Cathy\u2019s son is Thomas Gabriel. I didn\u2019t even know he could sing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s father was Carl Smith, also a country music star, but his influence was of a different nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t talk about the music. He wanted to be a cowboy,\u201d she said. \u201cHe became a gentleman rancher, and a cutting champion. But he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he came out and sang duet with me, which was quite a feat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her stepfather, Johnny Cash, and June Carter provide inspiration aplenty.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig John gave me my first electric guitar when I was about 11,\u201d she said. \u201cHe knew I wanted one. My cousin David and I wanted to have a band. Another cousin had a rehearsal spot for us to play in. They all still play music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter said she didn\u2019t know she could even sing until a time she was brought up on stage to sing, standing between her grandmother and aunt Helen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited my leg was jiggly,\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n

Carter recently moved back to Tennessee from California, where she\u2019d been for many years, to a home near the Carter Smith house, where she grew up, with Mother Maybelle in residence, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m loving being there with my dogs and my birds,\u201d she said. She also loves the easy access to all the music Nashville has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed it. When my oldest granddaughter turned 16, I said, that\u2019s it. I moved back. Now I\u2019m around music all the time. Hopefully, I\u2019ll take a break, do some songwriting on my guitar while I\u2019m there in Sun Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just on the Outlaw Country cruise, and got to play and be with all sorts of people. It\u2019s one of the best. Everything was excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

For tickets: Sun Valley Museum of Art (208) 726-9491 or svmoa.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlene Carter to play The Argyros BY DANA DUGAN\u00a0 There is kismet in the air. Within a couple of weeks, the Wood River Valley will be graced by two members of an extended family of legendary musicians. First up, appearing at the Argyros Performing Arts Center in Ketchum, on Saturday, March 7, will be Carlene […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,68,4,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art","category-calendar-2","category-entertainment","category-calendar-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}