> Tuesday April 27 9:45 AM ET > > June Carter Cash's Turn In The 'Ring' > > By Dean Goodman > > LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Many family gatherings can be wretched experiences, but when >the members of country music's > extended Carter clan get together it is pure harmony. > > More than 70 years after her mother achieved superstar fame as one-third of the >Carter Family, June Carter Cash keeps the > country-folk tradition alive with fireside sing-alongs at the Hendersonville, >Tennessee, estate she shares with her husband, singer > Johnny Cash. > > Sessions may include various children and grandchildren, former sons-in-law such as >country singers Marty Stuart and Rodney > Crowell, and longtime family friends. > > Strumming her trusty autoharp, June may perform ``Ring of Fire,'' the hit song she >co-wrote for her husband, or she may lead > everyone through Carter Family evergreens such as ``Wabash Cannonball'' or ``Will >The Circle Be Unbroken.'' > > For years family and friends urged her to do an album, but her top priority always >has been family, specifically traveling the > world with her husband. But she would always perform a couple of songs such as >``Jackson,'' the duet for which they won a > Grammy in 1968, and the poignant ``Far Side Banks of Jordan.'' > > ``I've been walking just far enough behind John for him to think that he was way out >in front,'' June, 69, told Reuters in an > interview. ``Women, if they've got any sense, will do that.'' > > JUNE'S TURN IN THE 'RING' > > But with Johnny Cash, 67, sidelined indefinitely battling a rare degenerative >disease, he stepped up the pressure on June to > make an album. She did release a solo album, ``Appalachian Pride,'' in the mid-'70s >but says Columbia pressed barely 25,000 > copies and it quickly disappeared from shops. > > ``He said to me, 'I want you to do this album. If you can knock me out with >something you do every day, then you need to do > this,''' June said. ``I get feeling better if I know I've done something that's >knocked Johnny out.'' > > The result is ``Press On'' (Small Hairy Dog/Risk Records), which June recorded in >three days at home with family and friends. > If it sounds rough, that was the whole point. She took requests and sang the songs >by heart. Most were recorded in one take > and she did not re-dub her voice, despite claiming to have had a bad cold at the >time. > > ``Marty Stuart said to me, 'Why don't you sing that one Carter Family song for me >that I love so much, 'Diamonds in the > Rough?' And I said, 'Sure I'll be glad to do that for you,''' she recalled. ``I >didn't even know that was going to be a record. I > sang it one time and didn't even put the last verse in there, and they said, 'That's >it! That's it!' That was the first record we cut.'' > > CARTER FAMILY LEGACY > > Her mother Maybelle, Aunt Sara and Uncle A.P. Carter would be proud. From their base >in Maces Spring, Virginia, the Carter > Family launched the modern era of country music in 1927 by selling millions of >records and touring incessantly. > > They recorded more than 250 songs in their 15-year career. Some, which will start >going into the public domain soon, have > been covered by the likes of Roy Acuff, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Joan Baez. > > ``My mother still sends me money from the grave that I'm thankful for, and my uncle >and my aunt,'' June said. ``It's quite a bit of > money, it's amazing really.'' > > The three children of A.P. and Sara Carter still run weekly music events at nearby >Hiltons, Virginia, and June owns the house > that her father, Ezra, built for his family. > > ``Press On'' also offers exhaustive liner notes and more than two dozen photos of >June and her family and friends from over the > years. ``It was like they let me write a book,'' she said. ``People are going to >know me better.'' > > June, the middle of three sisters, has been in showbiz all her life. She first >performed with the Carter Family, then with her > mother and sisters, Helen and Anita, after the group broke up. The acknowledged >family jokester, she also did comedy > sketches. One who listened to their radio shows was J.R. Cash, an Arkansas boy who >later won world renown as Johnny > Cash. > > JOHNNY AND JUNE > > But the paths of Johnny and June did not cross until the early 1960s, when she >joined his touring revue and was aghast at his > prodigious use of alcohol and methamphetamines. She cleaned him up (temporarily) and >they were wed -- his second, her third > marriage -- in 1968. The union has resulted in a son, John Carter Cash, who >co-produced ``Press On.'' > > Their extended family consists of seven children, 13 grandchildren and one >great-grandson. Helen died last year and Anita has > been in a hospital for six months battling complications from rheumatoid arthritis. > > Among the songs on ``Press On'' is ``Ring of Fire,'' which June sings with banjo and >guitar accompaniment. First cut by Anita as > a folk song, it was recorded with Mariachi horns by Cash in 1963 and topped the >country charts for seven weeks. > > Merle Kilgore, manager of June's godson, Hank Williams Jr., is credited as >songwriter, but June says she wrote it herself and > shared credit because ``he was very encouraging to me, and let's just leave it that >way.'' > > It annoys her husband no end, but she has no regrets. > > For the present, the couple are happy to spend their time at home and she says her >husband is successfully combating the > symptoms of Shy-Drager syndrome, a disease not unlike Parkinson's. Whether he will >tour again is up in the air but he is > planning to record a gospel album, she reports. > > ``We've had the greatest time, we've had fun,'' she said of their time together. >``We're just laughing.'' >
