The Carter Family

Reviewed by TenTillDeath:

Originally titled “The Country Album,” this traditional country album features themes of heartbreak disguised over upbeat country melodies and a bit of comedy?

The Carter Family’s Walk the Line mainly focuses on a story of heartbreak with the opening song telling listeners that the narrator could care less about the person who broke their heart. That’ll Be The Day follows up on this heartbreak with the narrator basically saying that hell would freeze over before they ever get back together with their love interest. Midway through side A, a bit of comedy enters the record’s fray with “For Lovin Me.” On this track, the narrator brags about breaking the heart of someone interested in them and jokes thats what they get for falling in love with them. Side A of this vintage vinyl is pretty strong with the exception of the final song “I Walk the Line.” Although the harmonized melodies by the group are fitting, the song seems to be the weakest of Side A in my opinion.

Side B of most records tend to have the weakest bunch of tracks; however, the opening track on Side B is strong enough to fit on Side A. “These Boots Are Made For Walking” perfectly blends big band with country and somehow should have been the ending track to side A, rather than I Walk The Line. What The Carter Family was thinking about making this song a Side B instead of a Side A is just mind boggling to me. Side B does seem to get strange and veers off the overall theme of love from Side A, but introduces a bit of comedy into the fray. In songs like “It’ll Aggrivate Your Soul,” The Carter Family jokes that you should never find a lover from Tennessee. Aside from these two tracks on Side B, Side B of this record just seems disorganized when compared to the rest of the record.

The themes of heartbreak disguised over up beat melodies tend to be very catchy and fitting for a traditional country album. The Carter Family seemed to be Taylor Swift before Taylor Swift with some of the subjects they were talking about here and it makes me wonder, “did they walk so Taylor could run.” This album starts off strong but gets very disorganized by the second half; in fact, I would argue that the majority of songs from Side B could have been excluded all together.

Overall, I believe this record is a strong 3.5/5. It has a great overall theme and is very danceable. If The Carter Family removed some of the songs from Side B, I believe this would have been a perfect record!

Watch my more detailed review on YouTube here: