Accessibility links
June Carter Cash June Carter Cash artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music

June Carter Cash

Maybelle Carter, The Mother Of Popular Country Music

With her family bands, Maybelle Carter — shown here, sitting, with her daughters June, Anita and Helen — helped create the sound of modern country music. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Review

The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women

Maybelle Carter, The Mother Of Popular Country Music

Known as "Mother Maybelle," Carter had a unique style of playing that helped determine the role of guitar in modern country music. Johnny Cash called her "the greatest star I've ever known."

Lost Album Gives Voice To A Johnny Cash In Recovery

A vintage snapshot hangs in the cabin outside Nashville where Johnny Cash and June Carter spent much of their later years. Stephen Jerkins hide caption

toggle caption
Stephen Jerkins

Music News

Lost Album Gives Voice To A Johnny Cash In Recovery

Fresh out of rehab, Cash recorded an album in the early 1980s that his fans never got to hear.

Lost Album Gives Voice To A Johnny Cash In Recovery

Listen · 6:19
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/292566529/293255163" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music

Wedding Day Blues: Finding the Perfect Mix CD

Countless music fans have attempted to craft the perfect mix CD — just the thing to put a soundtrack on special occasions. But an hour of love-themed dinner music for a wedding reception isn't as easy to assemble as it may seem.

Wedding Day Blues: Finding the Perfect Mix CD

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/11157882/11160269" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Books

Son Pays Loving Tribute to June Carter Cash

John Carter Cash, the only son of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, talks about his book and CD, Anchored in Love. The biography details her musical beginnings, and her painful yet enduring marriage to Johnny Cash.

Listen to this 'Talk of the Nation' topic

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/11159719/11159722" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

June Carter Cash: A Pioneer, A Partner

Fresh Air

Singer June Carter Cash was a Grammy-winning singer, a songwriter, musician, actress and author. She was married to Johnny Cash, and she came from the Carter Family, the country music pioneers. She died of complications from heart surgery at age 73, just four months before Johnny Cash died. This interview originally aired on June 19, 1987.

June Carter Cash: A Pioneer, A Partner

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5026598/5026599" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music

Johnny and June Carter Cash Estate Auction

Everything from tea sets to musical instruments from the estate of country music stars Johnny and June Carter Cash go on sale Tuesday at Sotheby's auction house in New York City. Ben Walker reports on the details of the collection, and talks with John Carter Cash — the son of the legendary musicians — about selling items from his parents' past.

Johnny and June Carter Cash Estate Auction

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/3917579/3917580" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

June Carter Cash's 'Wildwood Flower'

She was country music royalty, but June Carter Cash never left her Appalachian roots far behind. In her final recording, Wildwood Flower, she reached back to those roots by including several classics written by A.P. Carter and other members of her legendary country music family. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to her son, John Carter Cash, about the album, which he helped record just before her death in May.

June Carter Cash's 'Wildwood Flower'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1440172/1444294" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music News

Country Music's First Family

It's been three-quarters of a century since the Carter Family made its first recordings in Bristol, Tenn. The music of A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and her cousin Maybelle influenced countless country, folk and bluegrass artists. On Morning Edition, host Bob Edwards interviews the co-author of a new book about the Carter Family's musical legacy.

Country Music's First Family

Listen · 7:36
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1146742/146742" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Browse archive or search npr.org