Carlene Carter - The Platinum Collection (2007)

Carlene Carter has always straddled the line between country and rock and followed her own path. Beginning her career as a rock singer in the mid-'70s, she became immersed in the new wave in the late '70s before emerging as a new country singer in the late '80s. Throughout it all, her music has always infused roots music - whether country or rock & roll - with a nervy, edgy energy.

Simply put, this 20-track import compilation of Carter's Warner Bros. and Giant years issues one track each from 1979's "Two Sides To Every Woman" and 1980's classic "Musical Shapes", skips 1981's "Blue Nun" and 1983's "C'Est C Bon", and moves right into her hit records seven years later, beginning with 1990's "I Fell In Love", when she'd reconciled herself to Nash Vegas. There are a whopping nine of that album's 11 tracks on this disc.

The rest is split between three from "Little Love Letters" (1993) and four from 1995's "Little Acts Of Treason". What's interesting about this grab bag is it reveals some very interesting things about Carter: she's a terrific songwriter when she wants to be, her long sojourn in England put the rockabilly snarl in her swagger for good (it's even there on the later records), and she is a hell of a singer. One does wish that "Blue Nun" and "C'Est C Bon" would have been represented; Warner passed on issuing them here in the States, and they were generally slagged back in the day, but in retrospect they have utterly sublime moments.