Thu. July 14.2005
Wildwood Flowers Stars Her Daughter Carlene Carter
By: Chet Flippo
(NASHVILLE SKYLINE is a column by CMT/CMT).com Editorial
Director Chet Flippo.)
When June Carter Cash died two years ago, that marked the
end of the life of one of the greatest and strongest women in country music
history. At the time that she died, her daughter Carlene Carter (whose father
was Country Music Hall of Famer Carl Smith) was struggling to re-emerge from
years of personal difficulties, after a brilliant early singing career of her
own.
Now comes Carlene starring as her mother in the new musical
Wildwood Flowers, which received its world premiere
Wednesday night (July 13) at
The production is perhaps as valuable for its role in
returning Carlene Carter to the stage as it is for serving as a much-deserved
tribute to one of the more remarkable women in music history.
Wildwood Flowers depicts June's career history from her
childhood to her striking out on a solo career of her own. It begins with the
travels and travails of Mother Maybelle Carter traveling and performing with
her three daughters Anita, Helen and June. Maybelle, for the un-initiated, was
one-third of the celebrated Carter Family, the founding family of country
music. After the Carter Family's breakup in 1943, Maybelle and her girls began
touring, as Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.
June had a career that should be all the more celebrated
because by all rights it should not have happened. As the storyline of Wildwood
Flowers makes clear, June was the musical ugly duckling in a family where
musical genius flowed like spring water. And she had no natural talent. As is
made apparent during the musical, Carlene is actually a better singer than was
her mother (and is able to dig into June's vocal growl and perfectly mimic her
dancing). June was sandwiched between her musically gifted sisters Anita and
Helen. Anita's may well have been the greatest natural female voice in the
history of country music. But June carved out a musical career of her own, and
it's fascinating to watch that history sketched on stage, as she evolves from
ugly duckling to self-taught musician, sink-or-swim singer, and as a
self-taught and lauded comedienne.
And that's where Wildwood Flowers ends, as she launches her
solo career, after her first two marriages and before her marriage that would
endure. And before she went to
It was a daunting childhood for Carlene, whose father,
stepfather, and grandmother are members of the Country
Music Hall of Fame. "This is Carlene again," she told the audience,
stepping out of character after the performance of Wildwood Flowers. "This
show means a lot to me and my cousin, because of our mothers and our family.
Through doing this, I feel so close to my mother."
In her epilogue, Carlene dedicated the performance to
"my little sister Rose, my Wildwood Rose," who toured with her and
their parents June and Johnny and who died two years ago. "This is a song
about the best days of our lives," she said, before singing with emotion
her composition about Rose, "Me and the Wildwood Rose." This entire
evening could not have been easy for Carlene, to come to grips with her family
on several different levels.
It's a very charming and folksy musical on a small scale,
sprinkled with corny jokes and boasting an imaginative musical presentation
that goes beyond the predictable. Performed by a very able three-piece musical
ensemble, the songs range beyond the expected Carter Family works to
compositions by June, by Helen and to accurate period pieces, such as
"Country Girl" and "
Carlene herself displayed considerable courage and poise in her performance. Now perhaps she's at ease as daughter and sister and as woman on her own.