Deana Carter: From disco-head to country star
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 5, 1998) -- While to the outside observer it may seem like country singer Deana Carter enjoyed the quintessential "overnight success" after the release of her 1996 debut, "Did I Shave My Legs for This?" (Capitol Nashville), in fact the album was the product of a lifetime of living, learning and loving music.

The 32-year-old Carter -- who performs at the National Music Center in Lenox this Friday, July 17, at 8 -- did indeed enjoy instant success with the album's first single, "Strawberry Wine," which soared to number one on the country singles chart. That song garnered her a Grammy nomination, and subsequent singles, including "We Danced Anyway" and "Count Me In," powered the album to number 10 on Billboard's pop chart and number two on the country chart, where it still sits nearly two years later, having sold in excess of four million copies.

But far from a case of overnight success, Carter's recent triumph came after years of toiling in the trenches, including several attempts to abandon music altogether in favor of a more stable profession.

So when success finally came Carter's way, it was all the more sweet for the trying.

"We worked so hard to do the right thing as far as just honest music, and I think that that's what people related to a lot, as opposed to our trying to be hip or cool," said Carter in a recent phone interview from a tour stop in Farmington, N.M.

Carter said that before it was released, she had no idea that "Did I Shave My Legs For This?" would hit so big. "I'm glad in a way, because it's been so much fun," she said. "Every little achievement has just been awesome, and it keeps getting better and better. It came from a really honest spot for me and it continues to be that way, which is great."

The album by the former cheerleader, student-body president and self- confessed "disco-head" is a collection of country-flavored pop-rock and ballads alongside some unabashed contemporary honky-tonk, colored by Carter's down-home, sultry vocals.

Carter's songs -- about half of them co-written by her and half by such top-notch Nashville writers as Matraca Berg, Al Anderson, Randy Scruggs and Kim Carnes -- are sung from the point of view of no-nonsense modern women. To paraphrase Hillary Clinton, this is no "Tammy Wynette staying home and baking cookies" music, but rather post-feminist anthems featuring smart women, albeit ones frustrated in relationships with men who aren't quite up to the challenge they present to them. In voice and approach, she comes across as sort of a cross between Loretta Lynn and Shawn Colvin.

If hers is not typical country fare, Carter makes no apologies. "My goal is to reach the people who love Motley Crue," she said. "I think you reach as many people as you can with your music. Personally, I write about things I live through as a person, not as a country person. I just think you can relate to those things in a wide range of ways."

Carter attributes her wide-ranging approach to the influence of her father, the legendary Nashville studio guitarist Fred Carter, Jr. Her dad's impeccable pedigree includes stints in Ronnie Hawkins's backup band, The Hawks, where he was Robbie Robertson's predecessor (and, for a short time, his reluctant tutor), as well as session dates with Willie Nelson, Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan. In the late-'70s, Carter rejoined his former bandmate from The Hawks, drummer Levon Helm, when Helm formed his R&B supergroup, the RCO All-Stars.

Growing up around all this music was bound to have its effect on young Deana. "I think it's totally connected to what I do," she said. "I thank God every day that I grew up having the influences I had, that I wasn't exposed to just one thing, that I was exposed to a lot of different things. It seemed like at the time everything my dad touched was cool. I'm probably biased in saying that. But the way he played and what he brought to the table was a significant part of the sound of the Sixties and the Seventies. Simon and Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, Michael Martin Murphey's `Wildfire' -- the common thread for a lot of those people was my dad. And those kind of influences, man, you can't beat that."

Carter pays tribute to her father on her upcoming album, "Everything's Gonna Be All Right," due for release in September. The title track is an old song her father wrote in the late-'60s. "It's a very special song to me personally," she said, "and I was so happy I could do it. And it was a surprise to him, which was awesome."

Carter is full of such surprises, from the quote by Theodore Roosevelt that serves as a kind of epigraph on her CD ("Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat") to the man she claims as her role model.

"I've always looked up to Bruce Springsteen as my idol," said Carter. "I love him. He's always maintained that you always knew what you were getting. He's just a real dude on top of it. I love that. Just trying to be non-sequined, just a very earthy...I'm a hippie at heart. Just to be able to maintain that amidst what is perceived to be a very glamorous lifestyle is a goal for me. Just being your average person. I've always been impressed by people who didn't try to impress you. That's kind of where I'd like to head.

"I don't want to be a flash in the pan. It's interesting to see what's happened with country music lately. It's respecting the tradition of what's always been there but also incorporating a little more of other genres of music. But I think it's always been that way. Look at the blues influence early on, and the gospel influences on Hank Williams Sr. It's always been cross-collateralized; it's just a little more obvious now."

This summer Carter is touring with a six-piece band, including a fiddle player and two guitarists. "It allows me a lot of freedom, and I get to play mandolin and electric and acoustic guitar and some tambourine, and just kind of float around."

And the music she listens to while she's on the road?

"I'm a total disco-head," she reveals. "Roller skates and everything. Maybe it's because I was raised in that era, but I think it's still some of the best stuff. You can't beat the Bee Gees. I love it. I subscribed to all those Seventies CDs on TV. I have every collection."

If you would like to purchase Deana Carter CD's on-line, please click on the SoundStone logo to the right.

[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 16, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]