June Carter Cash

This is a worthy opus posthumous for an icon of traditional American folk music. Skip the eulogies and go straight to this album, released four months after June Carter Cash’s death last spring. She revisits Carter Family classics like “Keep on the Sunny Side” and “Church in the Wildwood,” with the slight tremor of age in her voice. Her last duet with husband Johnny Cash, “Temptation,” recaps their entire relationship, musically and personally. Though she’s joined by a range of musical stars—most of them relatives—June’s voice is the real star of this show. Intermixed with the new recordings are clips from younger days that demonstrate just how much she contributed to America’s musical heritage, and she closes the album with her trademark “Wildwood Flower,” the last note in a remarkable life.