If The Carter Family are regarded as near royalty in country music circles,
Carlene Carter was the rebellious wildchild, saucing up their traditional,
rootsy, God-fearing folk tunes with raunchy country rock. The daughter of June
Carter and honky tonk star Carl Smith, Carlene (born Rebecca Carlene Smith) was
taught guitar as a ten-year-old by Carl Perkins and started out singing back-up
to her mother in her early teens and wrote one of her first songs as a birthday
present for stepfather Johnny Cash. Married at 16, a mother a year later and
divorced soon afterwards, she was a big...