| 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' by Mark Blake for CMI |
| On the eve of her London gig, Carlene Carter sounds animated and enthusiastic while displaying a welcome streak of self-deprecating humour. THIS HAS TO BE YOUR FIRST BRITISH SHOW IN YEARS. 'Ten years I think. Which is strange when you consider how much time I used to spend over here. I actually consider London to be my second home. I first came here in 1976 and then came back again in '77 and '78. It was during one of those years, when I was working with Dave Edmunds on my first album (Carlene Carter), that I did 17 round trips from LA to London. That was the time when I figured I'd be better off just moving here.' THE LATE SEVENTIES MUST HABE BEEN A GREAT TIME FOR A MUSICIAN LIVING IN LONDON. 'Yeah, that whole punk and new wave thing was happening in music and that made it very exciting. I married Nick Lowe in '79 and he was having some success at the time. There was Elvis (Costello), Graham Parker, Dave Edmunds. It was great to be around all these creative people and seeing them do something, which at the time was considered unique, inspired me to get things moving with my own music. Anything out of the ordinary stood a chance. Which I took comfort in.' EVER SINCE YOUR CAREER BEGAN IT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN SOMETHING OF A STRUGGLE. YOU'VE EITHER BEEN CONSIDERED TOO ROCK FOR THE COUNTRY FANS OR TOO COUNTRY FOR THE ROCK CROWD. 'Tell me about it! That's why I like London. I had a lot of creative freedom during my time here which I never would have had in Nashville. Living in London actually enabled me to be myself. I remember Capitol Records playing my stuff at a time when no radio station in American would touch me. 'The thing is now, my record company (Giant) accept that some things sell better in Europe than they do in America. There were songs off the Little Love Letters album that America wouldn't go near. I'm actually working on four more songs specifically for the European market. Thankfully, the record company want to follow that line.' LITTLE LOVE LETTERS SEEMED LIKE THE MOST FOCUSSED ALBUM YOU'VE EVER MADE. WOULD IT BE FAIR TO SAY THAT YOU WERE TRYING TO FIND THE RIGHT MUSICAL DIRECTION FOR SOME TIME? 'It took me a hell of a long time to come to terms with exactly what I wanted to do with my music. And I now know. I'm not happy with all of the albums I've made. My favourite of those first few records is still Musical Shapes (the 1980 album considered by many to have predated Lyle Lovett and Mary-Chapin Carpenter in the new country stakes). We had great reviews, but not much in terms of sales. 'I think I've met every single person who bought that record. We did 30,000 copies and I swear that every copy has turned up backstage at a gig with someone wanting me to sign it. I was proud of that record because I felt that Nick and I had made an album that really was country rock in the truest sense of the word, which is exactly what I've always wanted to do. I felt very disillusioned that Nashville didn't open their arms to it. They just thought I was out of my mind.' DID YOU FIND THAT REJECTION TOUGH TO DEAL WITH? 'I did. I floundered around not really knowing what to do. I was under enormous pressure from my record company at the time. They wanted to market me in a particular way, but I didn't wan to compromise myself just to please the country crowd. I wasn't going to start doing a bunch of George Jones covers. So I thought the best thing to do was to experiment and then take a long hiatus. When I came back I was a little surer about what I wanted to do. I figured that if it worked out it would be because of my own talent and if I failed, it would be because whatever I was trying to do wasn't really me.' NASHVILLE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN UP IN ARMS ABOUT CARLENE CARTER FOREVER. DO YOU DELIBERATELY COURT CONTROVERSY OR IS IT ALL JUST A MISUNDERSTANDING? 'It's a misunderstanding (laughs). Seriously. I definitely don't consider myself to be a sex kitten or a sex pot by any means. I think I'm more like a country cheerleader.' WHAT ABOUT THE ALBUM, BLUE NUN (1981), HILARIOUSLY DESCRIBED IN ONE MUSIC REFERENCE BOOK AS "AN EXPLICIT CELEBRATION OF SEX"? "Oh my God! You know that album was considered so sexy that wouldn't even put it out in America. But all the time my tongue was just rooted in my cheek. It was a bit of fun. Nothing more.' |
| Johnny Cash's step-daughter has just come close to passing out. On a flying visit to London in anticipation of her forthcoming show, Carlene Carter has fallen foul of the the food, the weather, the beer, who knows?... 'I just felt real ill all of a sudden,' she declares, in a breathy, slightly Southern drawl, talking a couple of weeks after the event. 'So I just jumped up because I could see the floor coming towards me and I was right in the middle of doing an interview...' Carlene Carter has been creating a stir in country music circles since she first stowed away to Britain at the height of the punk era and started making music. Daughter of country stars Carl Smith and June Carter, step-daughter to Johnny Cash and half-sister to Rosanne Cash, Carlene has sidestepped most of the musical guidelines followed by the rest of her family. Last year's Little Love Letters was her strongest album yet, and a near-perfect mesh of pop rock and country. Choruses nagged into the subconcious, and sugar-sweet melodies vied for space with a stripped-down rockabilly guitar sound that tipped more than a nod in the direction of her former collaborators Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds. |
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