With her once ash blond hair now auburn, progressive country's crown princess Carlene Carter is the spitting image of her mother June Carter Cash. Heads turn when Maybelle Carter's granddaughter walks into the Sunset Grill, a Music City watering hole frequented by the celebrities, who scarcely earn more than a passing flicker from fellow diners. In part because of her beauty, in part because of her notoriety for living outside the lines, in part because of a pedigree that also includes father Carl Smith, stepfather Johnny Cash and a mother who co-wrote "Ring of Fire," people take notice.

Carlene, a wild child of the '70s L.A. country-rock and U.K. punk scenes, has emerged from a life that scanned far wilder than any country song. But in her own prolonged addiction and the 2003 deaths of paramour Howie Epstein, her mother, stepfather and sister Rosie, she found the strength to return to writing and created "Stronger," a song cycle coming out Tuesday that documents the pain, loss and courage it took to regain control of her life.

"In some ways, [writing] was the hardest part 'cause I lived it," says Carter. Her eyes flash with that spark that marked her irrepressibility three decades ago, when she was a country siren living on the fringe of British punk with then-husband Nick Lowe.

- Holly Gleason, LA Times

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