Wildwood Flower

When an album is released shortly after the death of its creator, reaction to it is predictable: It’s invariably hailed as a work of unique genius, a touching final chapter to a monumental career. So believe us when we tell you that Wildwood Flower, the final studio recording by folk-country legend June Carter Cash before her death this past May, is a work of unique genius, a touching final chapter to a monumental career. It’s an album filled with old songs—old Carter Family songs, songs Cash wrote 40 years ago, songs other people wrote 50 years ago. But rarely will you hear an artist put so much of herself into an album without descending into self-obsession. Listening to her voice crack across the quiet, swaying dance of acoustic guitar, fiddle, and cello on “Storms Are on the Ocean,” or listening to her and icon husband, Johnny, nearly cracking each other up as they trade verses on Bing Crosby’s “Temptation,” it’s hard not to feel as if you know her personally. Which, of course, makes her demise sting all the more painfully.