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Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Neighborhoods Employment Guide Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend June 10, 2006 Deana Carter harmoniously blends pop, country Have a comment on this review? Visit the Mail Tribune's Britt forum at www.mailtribuneforum.com to give your impressions of the concert or to hear reviewer Bill Varble's behind-the-scenes take on interviewing Carter. By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Deana Carter sings like a country girl and writes like a pop princess. Sometimes her two sides come together tightly, as in "In a Heartbeat," a beautiful ballad Carter sang near the end of an entertaining show that kicked off the Britt season Friday night in Jacksonville. Only occasionally did the country Carter take over, as in "Did I Shave My Legs for This?" from her CD of the same name, a tongue-in-cheek romp on the theme of working-class, domestic disillusionment done as a country waltz. Carter signed on when Marty Stuart cancelled. "Did I Shave My Legs for This?" was a mega-monster album, selling 5 million copies. Carter hasn't had that kind of success over the past decade. She gave up battling the Capitol label's country music gurus, moved to Vanguard and last year made an album of her own songs her way, the pop-sounding "The Story of My Life," from which many of Friday's songs were drawn. Carter is better live than recorded, and even less country-sounding. Her four-piece band moves effortlessly from power pop to middling rock, with the occasional nod to country. It doesn't hurt that she's drop-dead gorgeous with long blonde hair and wearing diaphanous clothing. Or that she once worked in a comedy club, likes to talk and knows how to work a crowd. Advertisement Carter grew up in and around the music industry, a daughter of famed studio guitarist Fred Carter, Jr., who played with everybody from Elvis to Dylan and was a friend of Ronnie Hawkens, the Canadian rockabilly who famously "bought the competition" by hiring the guys who would become The Band. So Carter's childhood memories include hanging out with Levon Helm and Rick Danko, which you can't help but think somehow fed into Deana Carter's two musical sides. She started with the pop-rock "The Girl You Left Me For" and moved quickly to "One Day at a Time," a paean to making the most of daily life that reaches for icons and comes up with Thelma and Louise, Elvis, Kurt Cobain and John Lennon. She moved quickly from song to song and acoustic to electric guitars and back again. This is a woman who knows how to sell a song, as in "Absence of the Heart," a divorce song that's bittersweet without being treacly. "Ordinary" went strongly to the pop side, with guitar work designed to make you think of George Harrison Capitol execs once argued with Carter that some of her stuff was "too Beatles-y". "Katie" is a cute song about a kid that Carter did as an acoustic solo number, lost it and started over. It had a certain charm, but they're not handing out awards for lyrics like "Katie likes to play the tambourine/her favorite color's army green." Carter is not the incendiary star whe was 10 years ago, but she still has a career. It'll be interesting to see where she goes with it. For a long time, Junior Brown was one of the best-kept secrets of Austin, Texas, but his amazing guitar playing would not remain secret, and he's been the center of a growing cult for about 20 years. Brown opened for Carter playing his own invention, a two-necked monster he calls a guit-steel that combines six-string and steel guitars in one ax. Accompanied only by bass and a single drum, Brown did numbers such as the swinging "You're wanted by the Police, and My Wife Thinks You're Dead" and "I Hung it Up," a rockabilly boogie. Bending low over his ax, which was supported on a stand, he showed mastery of styles from rockabilly and blues to truck-drivin' music to surf guitar to Chuck Berry and the slightest tease of some Jimi Hendrix. Hey Junior — next time do Jimi. 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