Living Up to the Legacy : Carlene Carter Upholds Family Name (in Her Own Way, of Course)

Carlene Carter has a lot of country music history caught up in her family ties: Her grandmother was the legendary Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family; her parents are June Carter (now June Carter Cash) and Carl Smith, one of the top country singers of the ‘50s; her stepdad is Johnny Cash.

Other performers might be overwhelmed by the weight of such a legacy (how long has Hank Williams Jr. been straining under his dad’s reputation?). But Carter seemed to be dancing nimbly atop those roots--in silver cowboy boots, no less--throughout her early show Monday at the Crazy Horse Steak House.

In her 15-song set, Carter amply demonstrated a command of country traditions from yelps and yodels to some torchy ballad singing. Yet even when singing songs by or about her family, she remained irrepressibly her own woman.

She always has gone her own way: In the past, she’s shown no compunction about uttering some of the raunchiest comments ever made by a country performer, some even while in the presence of her fundamentalist family members. Her earliest songwriting efforts found homes far from Nashville with Tracy Nelson and Emmylou Harris (the lyrics of Carter’s “Easy From Now On” yielded the title to Harris’ “Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town” album).

Her own singing career took root in England, supported by Graham Parker and the Rumour on her 1978 debut “Carlene Carter” album, and by Rockpile and herthen-soon-to-be-and-now-ex-husband Nick Lowe on Carter’s 1980 minor classic “Musical Shapes.”

She finally found a deserved success with last year’s “I Fell in Love” album, a splendid blend of solid country with the kind of effervescent pop sensibility at which ex-husband Lowe so excels. The album formed the core of her hourlong show Monday; there were also some new songs, and two songs from “Musical Shapes.”

In a silver-sequined mini-dress straight out of “Barbarella,” Carter danced and struck mock rock-star poses, and at one point reclined on the stage and kicked her dangerous legs in the air. Her stage manner was pure play-time--a mood that carried over to several songs, most notably her infectious country-pop hit “I Fell in Love,” during which she roamed through the audience, as it joined in on the call-and-response chorus.

“Come on Back,” the second hit from the album, recalled the Everly Brothers’ more up-tempo efforts, while the new single, “One Love,” was delivered as a driving rocker (the song laments the difficulty of finding “a man to keep my feet from running around”). “Me and the Wildwood Rose” was a touching remembrance of her childhood days spent touring with grandmother Maybelle, whose signature song was “Wildwood Flower.” She also did justice to her legacy with renditions of the Carters’ “My Dixie Darlin’ ” and Carl Smith’s “You Are the One.”

The showstopper, and proof of the emotional depth Carter’s voice can convey, was “The Sweetest Thing,” also from the “I Fell in Love” album. She called it her “divorce song,” her attempt to pen a “positive breakup song.” It indeed is a bittersweet thing, full of both the fondness and ache of remembrance. Carter sang it with an emotive quaver and an empathetic backing vocal from bassist Mike Paul.

Her bohemian-appearing quartet--which she has dubbed the “better than a husband” band--provided a solid and lively accompaniment throughout, kicking back the chairs on Kevin Welch’s driving twanger “True Love Never Dies” and on the uproarious “Too Drunk (to Remember).”