Search - Carlene Carter :: Stronger

A CD that should have, could have been a lot better

Mickey Dean | Millersville, Pa United States | 07/10/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Carlene Carter sings better than ever and there are some very well written songs on Stronger. That's the good news. The bad news is the production. Although her producer, John McFee, is a terrific musician, he has apparently never met an effects processor he didn't like... too much. Roots records, even Carlene's most commercially successful ones, are wonderfully big on jangle and twang. There little of that here that has survived being beaten into submission by too much compression and chorusing. Even the blue grass numbers feel like cheesy synth parts are more likely to pipe in at any moment than an unaltered guitar line. If you are a fan of "less is more" production in roots music, you will be very disappointed in this over produced country pop that is more akin to the swill that passes for country music on FM radio than the quality Carlene Carter is known and loved for. A+ for the vocals, B+ for the song writing and instrumental performances, and a D for what i am sure was well intentioned execution that went sadly wrong."

Stunning!

Sheila Bloom | Alexandria, VA United States | 02/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't know why this album didn't receive more coverage but it's brilliant and heartreaking. She looks so much like Mother Maybelle Carter and sounds somewhat like her mother June but she's all Carlene.



This album will break your heart with The Bitter End and, especially, Stronger. I haven't heard such a heartwrenching song since Alison Moorer's tribute to her mother in "Is Heaven Good Enough for You" or to both her mother and father (a murder-suicide) in "Cold, Cold Earth."



Her song about Howie Epstein, "Judgment Day" is, well, tremendously sad.



With all her sorrows, Carlene Carter has managed to rise about them and produce an album of stunning beauty amidst such sadness.



A treasure that should be more widely known."