Wildwood Flower

1	Keep on the Sunny Side 2:44
2	The Road to Kaintuck 2:54
3	Carter Girls Intro/Kneeling Drunkard's Plea 3:28
4	Storms Are on the Ocean 3:24
5	Little Junie Intro/Temptation 2:26
6	Big Yellow Peaches 3:25
7	Alcatraz 3:36
8	Sinking in the Lonesome Sea 4:40
9	The Church in the Wildwood/Lonesome Valley 3:25
10	Cannonball Blues 3:00
11	Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? 3:52
12	Anchored in Love 2:54
13	Wildwood Flower 4:26

Barnes & Noble

Spare, elegant, honest, and haunting, June Carter Cash's final recordings are indeed "the musical summation of an extraordinary life," as stepdaughter Rosanne Cash posits in her moving liner notes. The heart and soul of this acoustic gem reside in seven timeless A.P. Carter songs, which are rendered with an empathy and warmth that can only be born in the blood -- June's weathered but deeply affecting singing proves that point many times over. Keeping it close to the main artery, she's surrounded by family at almost every turn. Former son-in-law Marty Stuart contributes guitar, mandolin, and vocals on several numbers; niece Carlene Carter and her daughter Tiffany Anastasia Lowe sing winsome harmonies; and A.P.'s daughter Janet Carter offers a mesmerizing lead vocal on "Anchored in Love." Other Carters and Cashes appear throughout -- not least of them being June's husband, Johnny Cash, who adds authoritative narration to the historical story-song "The Road to Kaintuck," plays the comic foil to June's swooning femme on "Temptation," and adds chilling, somber harmonies to A.P.'s stark query, "Will You Miss Me when I'm Gone." Acoustic guitarist Norman Blake buttresses the vocals with sprightly finger-picked lines ("Cannonball Blues") and lively Mother Maybelle–style picking (on a simply beautiful rendering of "Wildwood Flower," among others), as if he'd stepped right out of a studio in the '30s to play on these sessions. Kudos too to June and Johnny's son, John Carter Cash, who produced this disc with admirable sensitivity, mostly by letting the songs and performances breathe. It all works, underscoring both the emotional directness in concept and execution that is singular to Carter music as well as the magnitude of American music's loss in the wake of June's passing. David McGee

All Music Guide

The tracks that comprise Wildwood Flower became June Carter Cash's final recording sessions, and were held from October 2002 to March 2003. Largely a family affair, Wildwood Flower is easily Carter Cash's least polished recording and perhaps her best. Husband Johnny sings in either duet or as backup on almost all the tracks; also singing are daughter Carlene, granddaughter Tiffany Anastasia Lowe, and cousins Joe and Janette Carter (children of Sara and A.P. Carter). Johnny and June's son John Carter Cash produced the album and former son-in-law Marty Stuart makes an appearance or two as well. Creating most of the instrumental merrymaking are Norman and Nancy Blake. And it is fitting that this collection of family and friends created June Carter Cash's recorded epitaph. These songs are intimate, frighteningly so. Her voice, as well as Johnny Cash's, are mere shadows of what once were golden throats, and the songs were by and large written by A.P. Carter, with one by June and a cover of a Leon Russell tune. The ghosts of the original Carter Family hover about uneasily in the mix here, offering shards of old harmonies and broken notes in the title track, "Anchored in Love," "Keep on the Sunny Side," "Road to Kaintuck," "Kneeling Drunkard's Plea," and especially "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone," where the truth strikes a little too close to home. There are a few spoken word intros here (and some historically recorded ones) that are both poignant and humorous -- check out June's observations of actor Lee Marvin on her intro to her song "Big Yellow Peaches." As the family gathers round one last time, the entire history of the country music tradition comes through and pours down around the listener, cracking and breaking and yet more musical than ever. This is the music of the folk as A.P. wrote it. And as such, it is both a credible historical document and, more importantly, the last will and testament of a legend who went back to her beginnings as a way of understanding the continuity of family and song in the present. Wildwood Flower is truly amazing, truly flawed, and heartbreakingly beautiful. Thom Jurek

Entertainment Weekly

The mood throughout this gentle Appalachian twirl is buoyant and affirming. (A-) Marc Weingarten

Blender

A warmly intimate record of a life lived in artistic community. Ann Powers