Drunkard's Plea"; Cash's kooky storytelling a la "Big Yellow Peaches," a song inspired by Lee Marvin; and several Carter Family numbers ("Keep on the Sunny Side" among them), upon which she's joined on vocals by her husband, children, grandchildren and other kinfolk. The album's pristine, spare sound em-phasizes Norman Blake's masterful picking, daughter-in-law Laura Cash's haunting fiddle and June's signature autoharp strum. "Will you miss me?" Cash presciently sings on one of the most moving tracks. Theanswer: yes.
HOLLY GEORGE-WARREN
(RS 931, September 18, 2003)
June Carter Cash's posthumous album is many things. It is an Appalachian epitaph rising through wild mountain thyme. It is the shaky soundtrack to a harvest barn dance where ghosts of the Carter family join hands and sing. And it is also an acoustic reflection of the life and love that the Carter/Cash family shared.