June Carter Wildwood Flower CD

WILDWOOD FLOWER won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. "Keep On The Sunny Side" won for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. "Temptation" was nominated for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals.

Released shortly after June Carter Cash's death in 2003, WILDWOOD FLOWER features the country music legend's most personal, intimate music. Recorded with relatives ranging from her cousins Janet and Joe Carter (the children of A.P. and Sara Carter) to granddaughter Tiffany Anastasia Lowe (the daughter of Carlene Carter and Nick Lowe) to, of course, her husband Johnny Cash, these 13 songs have the casual, almost spontaneous quality of a family sing-along. This feeling is heightened by both the snatches of conversation between the tracks and the song selection itself, taken almost entirely from the A.P. Carter songbook. That feeling of direct lineage colors the entire record; not only are these among the finest and most archetypal country songs ever written, they're also, in a very real way, family heirlooms, no less so than a treasured photograph or piece of jewelry. As a result, listening to WILDWOOD FLOWER is akin to being present at a particularly intimate, heartwarming family gathering.

Recorded at The Carter Family Estate, Maces Spring, Virgina; June & Johnny's Bedroom and Cash Cabin Studio, Hendersonville, Tennessee. Includes liner notes by Rosanne Cash.

Personnel includes: June Carter Cash (vocals, autoharp); Marty Stuart, Dale Jett (vocals, acoustic guitar); Johnny Cash, Janet Carter, Joe Carter (vocals); Laura Cash (acoustic guitar, fiddle, background vocals); Norman Blake (acoustic guitar); Nancy Blake (mandolin, cello); Dennis Crouch, Rick Lonow (bass); Carlene Carter, Tiffany Anastasia Lowe, Lorrie Carter Bennett (background vocals).

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.Rolling Stone (9/18/03, p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Fittingly, she says goodbye with a lovely bouquet of songs....The album's pristine, spare sound emphasizes Norman Blake's masterful picking, daughter-in-law Laura Cash's haunting fiddle and June's signature autoharp strum..."
Entertainment Weekly (9/12/03, p.152) - "...There's palpable joy in the way she and her supporting cast...breath life into these age-old country-folk songs, as if they're tugging at rapture and saness at the same time....As a posthumous release, it's almost too poignant to bear." - Rating A-
Uncut (1/04, p.108) - 4 stars out of 5 - "WILDWOOD FLOWER is raw and achingly human."
Dirty Linen (12/03, p.52) - "...WILDWOOD FLOWER serves as a poignant and beautiful coda to her fascinating musical life..."
Mojo (Publisher) (12/03, p.108) - 5 stars out of 5 - "Humble, home-spun, deeply warm and honest, this record comes from a place where the idea of music as business simply doesn't exist."