Carlene Carter Fan Club: Music

Track #9 - "Friendly Gates," written by Jack Wesley Routh. Vocal - Carlene Routh.

Album ad shown here from Country Music magazine, December 1974.

COUNTRY MUSIC - January 1975 This album may have the junkie and the juicehead in its title but it is actually the Cash Family Singers in action. June Carter Cash we are used to hearing, of course, but now we have Rosanne Cash, Carlene Routh and Rosey Nix, either the start of the Cash singing dynasty or the continuation of the Carter Family one, whichever way you look at it. Johnny Cash sounds very much at home (literally) as he dispenses paternal, if somewhat ordinary advice to Rosey on "Father And Daughter." It's very low key, the parent asking youth to slow down, and Rosey essaying some mild protest in an edgy but distinctive voice. Carlene gets a song all to herself, "Friendly Gates," a nice straightforward ballad. The title song, "The Junkie And The Juicehead (Minus Me)" is a Kris Kristofferson slice of low-life, abounding in moral and brittle-clever lines that made Kristofferson's reputation--"every empty bottle is my private crystal ball" and so on. Cash gets into and under the lyric and although it might not be the most commercial thing he has done it is the most interesting in a long time. Cash has real talent with the out-of-the-ordinary. It is the best Cash album for some time and, because of the emergence of the daughters, a really offbeat one. IAN DOVE