John Carter Cash follows historic family's tradition with new Cash House label

John Carter Cash is continuing the traditional country music of his parents and grandparents with the launch of his label Cash House Records and releases by himself, wife Laura Cash and the Carter Family III, which is made up of John Carter and Laura and his cousin Dale Jett.

Laura's album Awake But Dreaming was released on July 13, while Carter Family III's Past & Present came out Aug. 24. John Carter's Family Secret is out today.

The label's name even plays on tradition, in that John Carter's father Johnny Cash's business was conducted under the umbrella House of Cash. It was conceived when the Carter Family III members were talking about making their own music while "following our heart in the creation of it," says John Carter.

"One thing led to another," he says. "I've been wanting to do my own record for a while and Laura likewise wanted to do hers, and I was writing with Dale and we chose the songs and it came together. We picked some good old Carter Family standards and original things and other songs we loved and put them together [in Past & Present], but we didn't push it or rush-release it. It was a matter of the heart and paying homage--and at the same time something new."

John Carter's family tree gets a bit confusing--even for him.

The original Carter Family, of course, is considered the most influential group in country music history and consisted of Alvin P. Carter (better known as A.P. Carter), his wife Sara and sister-in-law Maybelle. The second generation Carter Family was mainly Maybelle's daughters Anita, June and Helen, who often toured, along with Maybelle (then better known as Mother Maybelle), in The Johnny Cash Show; A.P's and Sara's children Joe and Janette also performed, sometimes with Sara.

"Dale's grandfather and my grandfather were brothers. Someone can tell you exactly what that makes us!" says John Carter. "Janette is his mother. It gets real confusing: Maybelle and Sara were first cousins from the other side of the mountain [in rural Virginia]. A.P. went across the mountain and met Sara, who told him to bring his brother back over to meet her cousin Maybelle [who then married A.P.'s brother Ezra]."

Laura Cash, says John Carter, is "so in tune with Maybelle's spirit." A champion fiddler who took first place last year in the adult division at the National Fiddle Championship (she won in the junior division 20 years earlier), she also plays guitar, and played both and sang on June Carter Cash's Grammy-winning final album Wildwood Flower (2003).

"She loves true, traditional, good country music and wanted to make a record with some of her heroes she grew up listening to," continues John Carter. "She tracked down the album songs herself and wrote an original for Roy Acuff ['Song For Roy (Country Music's King)']. She's one of my favorite country singers--like [1940s traditional country singer] Molly O'Day but [with] more western swing."

Of his own Family Secret, John Carter says, "I wanted to follow my heart and stretch out and give an honest and diverse offering of a lot of the styles of music I love, without limits and boundaries." All the songs are original except for Loudon Wainwright III’s “Swimming Song” and Tom Paxton's “The Last Thing on my Mind.”

John Carter is already planning follow-up solo and Carter Family III albums for next year. The author of two children's books and a biography of his mother, he's got a third children's title, The Cat In The Rhinestone Suit, due soon, and is working on a novel.

"I'm also working on a book about my father, focusing mostly on the not-so-well-known sides of his creativity--photography, poetry and short stories," he says.

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