Described on her website as “Hollywood Down Home,” Pam Linton has pursued a career that brought her from her native St. Stephen, Minnesota, to singing in church, at local events, and eventually on local television. Midwestern entertainer Sherwin Linton took her under his proverbial wing and brought her cross country where her varied singing style and astute fashion sense, and recognition as a chef and jewelry designer, brought her further fame. As a singer and devout musical historian, she was inducted into the National Traditional Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.
Linton’s first solo album, Looking Back, was released in 2004, and it reflects her long-held love of musical tradition. That was followed by an LP recorded with her mentor and now-husband, Sherwin Linton, titled Pam Linton – 40 – Loves Ring Of Fire. Nevertheless, her new album, Songs of the Carter Family, from New Folk Records, may be her most telling expression of appreciation for the early influences ingrained in her by her aunt early on — specifically a love of country music standards borne from the ’40s and ’50s. She shares a debt of gratitude for the Carter Family, the traditional family folk group that recorded between 1927 and 1956, becoming the first vocal group to attain the status of legitimate country music stars, as well as one of the first groups to record commercial country music.
The Carters also helped foster the essential roots of bluegrass through their delicate weaving of an iconic traditional tapestry.
In the process, they produced a wealth of standards that remain an intrinsic part of the popular musical lexicon. Consequently, this particular set of songs, recorded in North Carolina and featuring contributions from Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Jeremy Stephens, and David Johnson, leans heavily on the familiarity factor, courtesy of such certified country classics as Keep On the Sunnyside, Can the Circle Be Unbroken, Wildwood Flower, Wabash Cannon Ball, Father On, and Are You Lonesome Tonight, among the many. The love of home and hearth, feelings of faith, humor and humility, and occasional tales of rejected romance take on new life through Linton’s emotive expression and decidedly down-home delivery. There’s a sense of unbridled joy and upbeat enthusiasm present in each of these reads, emotions that are evident even within the saddest and most sobering songs.
As a result, Songs of the Carter Family ought to be considered something akin to an essential acquisition. It also reminds us all that great music is timeless and easily transposed from past to present. Linton deserves due credit for keeping it all in context.
