Anchored In Love: An Intimate Portrait Of June Carter Cash
by John Carter Cash

Loving portrait through the eyes of a son

Since the passing of his parents, John Carter Cash has done a worthy job of honouring their memories. His Voice Of The Spirit collection and Anchored In Love tribute to mother June have kept the Appalachian spirit alive in song, and are much more in keeping with the way his parents lived their lives than the umpteenth Ring Of Fire compilation. His memoirs of his mother are equally refreshing, seeing her through the eyes of someone other than a distanced biographer more interested in John Senior. Instead, this is a loving tribute to the woman who single-handedly kept the Carter Cash clan together through thickest and thinnest. It offers tender insights into family life with June and Johnny, not least Johnny Cash phoning Nashville’s authorities to tell them he’d be speeding through town at 100mph to get to his young son, who had been trapped under a jeep following an accident; they could arrest him at the hospital after (instead, the police blocked off the major intersections and waved him through). Honest without being brutally so, John Carter is clearly keeping some memories for himself. Thankfully he shares enough to make this a touching, appealing memoir to a character stronger than many of us remember.

ISBN 084991907

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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