I moved back to Tennessee in '86 or '87. That's when I worked with the Carter Family because I really wanted to understand my roots.

Carlene Carter

Categorized in : Understand Back Roots Family

I've always had wanderlust to try and do different things, but I always return to the music of the Carter family.

try always family music

I love rock n' rollers.

rock i-love love

Don't try to be like somebody else. You'll be miserable. You need to be yourself, and don't ever get a big head.

be-yourself yourself try you

I believe everything falls into place as it's supposed to.

everything place i-believe believe

I've always wanted to make records that rock like hell. But also, I've never wanted to compromise that Country place deep inside.

deep place hell country

I love to be surrounded by nature.

surrounded i-love nature love

I'm really about my family and really proud of being a Carter.

about being family proud

I'm pretty much an open book.

open pretty open-book book

I'm a bubbling brew of emotions, but mostly, I'm an optimistic person.

brew emotions person optimistic

I have great stories. I am going to write a book.

going i-am great book

I always have to just be myself. Anything else, I'm not happy, and it comes out musically.

just myself always happy

Be yourself. And every person is unique.

person be-yourself yourself unique

My Smiths, my Carters, the Cashes - everybody embraced me and held my arms up when I couldn't do it myself.

everybody myself up me

I'm kind of a perfectionist about my songwriting. If I don't mean it, I don't think it's any good.

good think songwriting mean

I've had a few ditty hits.

hits few had

Lots of girls marry at 16 in Tennessee.

marry lots tennessee

There was a period where I was a little scared that I'd blown my chance.

little where scared chance

I've matured as a writer and human being. I've got some wisdom under my belt.

human-being some being wisdom

I do feel I'm responsible to carrying on the music. That's what I was charged with as a kid. When I was a little girl, I was told, 'When we are gone' - when you're a kid, you never think they'll ever be gone - 'you have to keep the music alive, the Carter Family songs, and add your own songs.'

you family music girl

I was thinking about it: so many of my stories are about my family life, not about being related to a lot of famous people. That's my grandma, that's my mama, my daddy, my aunt, my uncle, my stepdaddy. I'd probably tell them even if they weren't well known.

family life people thinking