*** June Carter Cash

PRESS ON

(Risk/Small Hairy Dog Records)

Here's a vivid and touching connection to the deepest roots of country music. June Carter Cash is not only the wife of Johnny (and author of his breakthrough hit, "Ring of Fire") but the daughter of Mother Maybelle Carter, a third of country's first major recording act, the Carter Family. Their sides from the '20s and '30s (along with Jimmie Rodgers') remain the music's earliest cornerstones. And June carries on their tradition of simple, string-and-fret-driven mountain melodies on her first, long-overdue solo album. With Norman Blake and Marty Stuart on acoustic guitars and stalwarts of the Cash touring band aboard, the playing's impeccable.

June's own autoharp and quavering voice provide raw and rustic passion -- especially on the beautiful dobro-colored "Wings of Angels." But what's most fun is getting a glimpse into her plainly unusual psyche. She pairs songs of longing for lost friends like James Dean and Elvis with fantasies about riding horses through Italian restaurants and a cautionary tale about Quentin Tarantino (who, she warns her actress granddaughter, "makes his women wild and mean . . . and they lose a lot of blood"). There's also a tear-jerker duet with the Shy-Dragger-syndrome-afflicted Johnny on "The Far Banks of Jordan." Its theme -- an old couple facing their impending deaths -- reflects the candor that makes this album, and June, so special.

-- Ted Drozdowski