The title is “June” – no surname. Which is surely director Kristen Vaurio making a point, since her documentary about June Carter Cash makes a convincing case that the country singer has for too long been under-appreciated and overshadowed by her husband Johnny. The stereotype of June is that she was the wifey-for-lifey who saved Cash from his demons, but the woman who emerges here is tough and funny, blazing a trail for herself as an artist. As Reese Witherspoon, who portrayed her in the movie Walk the Line, points out – still indignant – it was June who wrote Ring of Fire (with Merle Kilgore), one of Cash’s most famous songs.
Carter was born into country music royalty, the Carter family, and was touring by her teens. She may not have been the best singer in the family, but she had personality and sang with “guts and heart”; so says Dolly Parton, among the country legends interviewed here. In archival footage we see June putting on a hammy hillbilly accent and goofing around in front of the camera, early in her career.
