The State of Things; John Edwards/Krispy Kreme

this is the state of things i'm going to end in a few months from now we should have a better idea in seven weeks the iowa caucuses will be held in new hampshire primary according to the polls in north carolina senator john edwards bid for the democratic presidential nomination is running behind in those states but polls in south carolina show him running high or so this hour we take a look at the north carolina senator stevens is also the sour cream winston salem dollar company has the name recognition that a politician would find herself and doing very well on wall street we talk with a greensboro write about the rise of krispy kreme and later this hour wildwood flower cd is a collection that just before her death and take a look at the past two years reduce john edwards' chances krispy kreme swear choose and treasures from june carter cash the head of the state of things but first this news report in nineteen eighty eight with sean bank was taking a shower when police announced themselves waited about twenty seconds

and then i broke down the door of his las vegas apartment police found crack cocaine and guns and bank served four years in prison before his conviction was overturned by the ninth circuit court of appeals which said police should've waited longer but the supreme court now says that longer notice would've given day it's enough time to dispose of evidence the court has ruled in the past the police must get some notice before entering in this ruling the court declined to give a rule on how much warning is adequate saying it would depend on individual circumstances writing for the majority justice david souter said police had good reason to rush if they suspected drugs were in the apartment larry abramson npr news washington the british foreign office has warned britons that they should adopt a low profile and saudi arabia the device follows a similar warning from the us state department about the threat of more terror attacks there the us says homes are westerners who live in riyadh the saudi capital have been watched by terrorists car bombs exploded at three different compounds in riyadh last may killing twenty six people and an additional nine bombers another

attack last month killed seventeen people a trial is underway in key west florida for six cuban man accused of hijacking a cuban airliner from havana to the united states' npr's phillip davis has more the politically charged trial in federal court is offering two starkly contrasts in views of what happened aboard a cuban dc three passenger plane last march nineteenth the pilot of the complaint says while en route to the isle of youth from havana again give cuban men broke through the cockpit door held a knife against its throat and demanded the plane be flown to cuba the six defendants lawyers say the incident was a freedom flight and that most have not all of those on board are collaborating on a plan to leave communist cuba for the united states that a version of the plain caused american forces to scramble to fighter jets which escorted the plane until it landed in key west meanwhile fourteen of the passengers have been allowed to stay in the united states look davis and your

news miami testimony resumes today in the manslaughter trial of south dakota congressman bill janklow he's accused of striking and killing a motorcyclist with his car defense attorneys say general suffered a diabetic reaction that caused him to speed through a stop sign possible prosecution witnesses could include senate minority leader in south dakota senator tom paschal on wall street the dow is down sixteen points and ninety add to the nasdaq is up three points and nineteen ninety two the s and p five hundred is up a fraction of one thousand seventy this is npr it's forty seven degrees at twelve or four good afternoon i'm david brower with news and w and c north carolina congressman cast ballenger announced his retirement this morning after thirty seven years of public service the republican lawmaker says he will leave office at the end of his current term seventy six rob ballenger side of the cost of travel between washington and his home in hickory as a factor in his decision the american civil liberties union is now representing university of north carolina student entangled in a fight

about downloading music recording industry of america issued a subpoena not over for the student has the debt is undisclosed years to use and just stems from what it perceives is a violation of the students cause additional rights to privacy and anonymous use of the internet nay still you attorneys says by requesting the student's name and contact information before approving any legal wrongdoing dr iaea is violating the students' rights the state of north carolina can now boast of having the most certified public school teachers of any state in the nation for mike is a announced this week at fifteen hundred teachers earn certification from the national board professional teaching standards that raises the total in the state to more than six thousand natural gas prices are coming down for some customers activist a utilities commission approved eleven percent decrease from pierre's nc energy the average household would say about eighty nine dollars per year after the adjustment of the customers are still paying more than they did two years ago it is

and man this is the state of things i'm going to pan cover north carolina senator john edwards has been on the presidential stump since early this year trying to get the democratic

nomination after a flying start edwards polling numbers have stalled in two key states iowa where caucuses still be held in seven weeks and in new hampshire where the democratic presidential primary is held each weeks from today so the question is does senator john edwards have a chance to win the democratic presidential nomination or will he be one of the campaign casualties following the first primaries we have been tracking the north carolina senators did and we check in again today with two reporters who've been out on the road with john edwards erica dyer is a reporter with the greensboro news and record and returns the table here hi there erik and tomorrow is political reporter with the charlotte observer welcome jim and we welcome your calls a seller's well if you have a card numbers one eight seven seven nine six to nine eight six to the email addresses s a t a w and c dot com archie will argue moral yesterday john edwards a laid out a more specific trade proposal to save jobs in north carolina and elsewhere is trade going to be a major issue in the

upcoming primaries in elections or is that a state by state thing i mean it's a major issue i think anywhere you go you hear that same refrain you hear about that they lost the people blame free and open trade policy for the south carolina which has lost thousands of textile jobs another job at twitter here in north carolina you're clear about that and i wouldn't even places like oklahoma where jobs have the last one it will be a major issue that he can continue to try to explore it dyer almost immediately one of i his competitors are richard gephardt jump john edwards for coming up with a plan for saving jobs saying where were you when it mattered for a vote in the us senate gephardt has been very closely tied more snow than the rest of the candidates with organized labor and that of his service but the bulk of the vote were going to get support and key early state and so he's trying to fortify that that day from and this particular like iowa

were jammed with mature that the va trade issues and a lot of jobs that caused is playing very strongly appear on guitar need to win iowa to remain viable for years trying to make sure that it was a simple way any passport an update hurt his chances so maura what's the prognosis on john edwards and new hampshire and iowa the first two stops in and decide this move toward the white house to the polls not indicated john edwards would come out terribly well in those states will double to a divided and violent want all i can recall vote so i gave it we've heard the third you know you've got the you know and i would do again realistically lot of forests yet candidate in that race who do have the chance about a chance to win at the yard have joe lieberman and wesley clark repeat themselves out of the iowa caucuses so that leaves them you know three lesser known candidate and then for others and edwards is among them and you know he's really got out if he finished third allow

it be extremely happy that what about that in all likelihood that he would not carry out in new hampshire is that who he's seen is digging out with right now well i think i think they think that i think it i love cats probably carry out what if they're really going to be departing dean at least right now we're still brilliant bottom up in the way of the two people up on top and so really it's between kerry and there were tumors dimension because lieberman joe lieberman and with a quarter dropped out i mean the other candidate left or are al sharpton carol moseley braun in this cafe sure widely seen as being and very much a long shot for the nomination so he's spinning most of his efforts and breaking through in south carolina which will be hell holding its primaries about a week after new hampshire along with a half dozen other states like the real action that their most important airport are the one to come in early february you'll remember the counter at the counter that the primary

calendar and burma compressed bashir to have a lot more states are having their election immediately after iowa and new hampshire a traditional african nation caucus and primary has thirty to where people he felt he will win three primack put the onus on soft win south carolina on february third letters they were he was born neighbors north carolina and leave his roots and working class background comply very well there and other state but he has been really focusing on jan i will pour out there a week ago when he was an oklahoma and that's the thing that would also hold a primary the famed i've spoken to say that he's looking to to win and hopefully that will counteract it you're showing in new hampshire i agree with it that they leave ignoring iowa new hampshire even if the dental the whole the hundred town meeting in new hampshire that all ninety nine counties in iowa in a lot of time in there and operated in the whole expectations game too and i think a third place finisher have with you at that guy

by the punditry of years old to have a good showing in iowa because people don't expect them to finish first or second or even third of this point and ensure the other think that i think were very indian are duking it out there for that they're in the top three places in most polls with the laptop itself you have a third of her respectable poured into the ticket so the strategy for the edwards campaign is so we still has a pulse in new hampshire and iowa he's he is trying to meet first births are now quiet man but he is trying to show that he can be competitive and have to give up on any state we want them to know that for now they swing and i'll army was there before or he was supposed to be there before thanksgiving i'll be back on shore several times again with marble be back in new hampshire on sunday is not given up any of the states even though he is not our theme of me being able to win so you've got of the picture so that when there is a media coverage of the result of iowa and their of media coverage of the results in new hampshire he's

part of that mix his name of him again one way that you hear from a candidate candidate movement and the thing that i think all the car getting a package route and you get a lot of it the carrion he had been thinking about that argentina now been fighting about any number of lieberman democrat connecticut martin early america they gather there were maybe moving up on his radar screens at the mindset was the strategy behind going after oklahoma have a half dozen half dozen states on the surface every south carolina obviously edwards his home where that's where he was born is putting a lot of effort to winning there but why go after oklahoma what were the other choices other states we could've well oklahoma the holidays and they're playing the part of oklahoma which they like that a lot

adeline you know somebody when somebody when the carolina that's why joe lieberman is fighting up in delaware but smaller that is to get to the winner's column in arizona new mexico are also on that day other states also that will be out of german to arizona new mexico edwards's than spending all of them he'll be back in a new mexico that have a caucus well small meetings to pick a nominee that fell off of the thing that you can keep going back a campaigner this week other states are major engines pick apart from missouri most unfair wen offers right off of playful he would win and a north dakota where apartment buildings and were using it for midwestern point background and john edwards has published a book about this past week or two and it's called for trials is not your typical campaign autobiography does focuses on four cases that he approached her that he took part in this very well paid trial attorney how how is the book he already here

i wrote it on what he has on the airplane flight from entering the airport is it is to evoke a quick read book and it does as you mentioned wonder of it focuses on four more compelling case during his career and that it reinforces or try to reinforce the image that the the center put on the trail the heat that he stands up against the big corporations against the powerful interests that you're defending the common man the person who's who doesn't have that power and hoping youre showing that he did a trial lawyer a wooded a friend's brother yasser we've had a lot of biographical detail and it's not just about him in the choir room he does is able to weave him you know working class background rob carolina being first the family go to college alamos wife and also talked about the death of his son wade edwards died in a car wreck about seven years ago he was in a jeep cherokee driving down to the coast near wilmington

augusta wind blew the vehicle over and he died he was insistent that that generation really talk rarely if ever talked about on the trail he doesn't talk about someone in the book spent more time talking about weighed the life that this mention that it was a very very powerfully painful experience in his life that's a very personal book a lot with parts of that weight you know edward has been hammered by republicans particularly for being a trial lawyer and we try to do here is what their dream reports that you know he represents regular people but offer the sort of the you know then the other side of the trial lawyer story is he says it seemed to attack president bush more more more i understand has a t shirt on his website that has the president's head on a turkey by howard dean has been tapping into a dislike and distrust of president bush howard dean the front runner right now is is edward's following suit tapping into that anger among democrats would want sadly all are all the democrats to some degree have to show that they're willing to

be tough it's pushing that there is a strong contender within the democrat core democratic voters that really dislike the bush administration from top to bottom so anybody who's going to have that chance what the democrats are saying we would like you to go against president bush in two thousand for have to show that he wore or she is willing to do to beat that patents i have all been of that if you have a if you've got a two people and the primary thing that want to teach worth of trying to figure out who would be the alternative forum an end john edwards and john kerry and pick apart all the others are trying to figure out away with a conclusion and self of sort of i've been described as the anti gmo the alternative to being an ever to have been recently talking up so that they can get the democratic party that message to counteract what that means more angry messages or you talk about how the

party of anger over that we'll continue our talk with jim moore political reporter with the charlotte observer and eric dire with the greensboro news and record talking about senator john edwards a bid for the white house support for the state of things comes from the corporation for public broadcasting and listeners like you support i remember this is the state of things i melinda pan caught a hot done it's now we'll be taking a look at the krispy

kreme dynasty in a moment we're talking right now though about the john edwards presidential campaign and its ambitions eric dyer is with this reporter with the greens really is a record and jim moral political reporter for the charlotte observer and just before the break eric and jam it you know you were talking about how edwards is hoping to position himself as sir the anti angry anti deemed non dean candidate nineteen the candidate the democrats can put forward is taking jabs at the president is out and delicate line to walk their church it's a very delicate line he does edwards the job i certainly going after the president as being half beholden to corporate america for ruining the middle class for having failed economic policies of all sorts of things but you know it's good transpose own ideas tries to you know show that he had ideas for how to fix what he would argue the president has done to the country and it's a fine line to walk probably it's because i mean i think if you look at the campaign

i think he delivered the sort of a visceral reaction among his supporters about the president and about the administration and edwards had been pummeled like to try to cap that you know you try to drive to that and then and then the cap that would you know by going to his policy proposals which are numerous probably a good idea that i don't think that he lifts quite quite the fan reaction against cloture or curtains it at that i wonder though is that at the wooden dean edwards ticket be a good good cop bad cop or bad cop good cop kind of approach for the democrats to take it might be our that's likely though i mean i don't really know that with edward other than chaotic geographical palatine ill with edwards would actually be taken if if howard dean part of our deans of messages is going after a vote washington politicians

are trying to play down at his watch and politician been there for five years he still loved in that group and i don't know how he would would fit in one on our didn't take it down but in an affidavit have medicaid with politically more for health insurance or international experience the wesley clark we're after one thing that i john edwards did manage to do out of the blocks getting started this campaign was raise a lot of money quickly and yet he's been eclipsed now by howard dean on that start to slow i think i read one place that dr dennis to senators raising more money than an average it was ok so bob if your bike orders that and that would show popularity for one candidate perhaps not as much for another is is this a sign that that the edwards campaign ad running out of at least financial steam well the spam from a rich campaign they've spent the first and not entirely untrue that spent most of the department have first half of the year are really focusing regime and might make you a

competitive and then got more to spending time in iowa new hampshire south carolina oklahoma and in a third quarter of the sheer nets when you're going from from july first to be in the september both the period which he raised just a little bit more than that dennis kucinich i'm going to see where the fourth quarter totaled those first bike back up a mirror you know if you are if people your donors tend to think that he is not a shock then they may not do on to put much more money to a trivial point but not every one point i mean if they had any help he managed the campaign and raise money daughters look at paul for fike other people there and you know they wanted that are the winner and you know the better you're going to be more money again esther is really looking to the federal matching funds which come after the first lyric the candidate has taken a report over three million dollars which in january helped mountain i just would turn a corner here quickly gentlemen earlier this morning i'm representing cast

ballot republican from the tenth district in north carolina decided he was not going to seek reelection in november such a moral messages from your part of the state did dad cas ballenger is decision surprise you i'm not really a veteran worker for a lot i mean there's a couple things about your health got himself in trouble occasionally with a comment that he made last year one that simply look at othello congress do they call it in a later retracted a bit of unregulated period when something about the arabs are moving into washington neighborhood only half a virtual things like that that probably been the hardest hit in north carolina by job losses in a lot of furniture and textile mills appear of clothes to go on overseas and he had to leave that a free trader federal internationalist from the get go and support a lot of these trade agreements that made him vulnerable between madame the principal thing thank you for

being with us today jim morals political reporter with the charlotte observer and there are dire thanks to you as well and or die reporter with the greensboro news and record just ahead hon till it's now this is the state of things i'm going to pan cover in nineteen thirty seven vernon rudolph right at the delegate ana clapboard building in winston salem but this is not just any doubt that it was to be the first krispy kreme doughnut that start sixty six years ago krispy kreme has grown into one of the country's most successful specialty restaurant chains is also not coincidentally one of the most recognizable brand names going an

estimated seven and a half million krispy kreme doughnuts are made every day in more than two point seven billion are produced each year someone's eating them and so is wall street during its initial public offering of stock in two thousand krispy kreme raised sixty five point seven million dollars it's pretty good for the low tech donut so how'd the winston salem based company get to where it is today to some answers may be found in a new book it's called making dough the twelve secret ingredients of krispy kreme success one of the co authors of the book is amy joiner who is a business reporter for the greensboro news and record and joins us now welcome hi lo and i'd like to be a well to start off at the beginning of the krispy kreme story the father of krispy kreme donuts is vernon rudolph and i understand from your book that he arrived in winston salem the nineteen thirty six pontiac and it was filled with donna making equipment two hundred dollars in his pocket had the idea to do this

and did he had this dream of making it such a big company from very start to wear well what was it about the limits of what actually was ahead because it had been a family business vernon's uncle few years before had up artist ed out recipes from a cage an e and i'm new orleans and he also purchased the name krispy kreme family time at go ah that turnovers so some donut shops and kentucky where they're from and other parts of the south vernon's father and brother also were involved in the business but as a young man he decided he wanted to strike out on his own and he in some friends got got that cash to gather who were at that nineteen thirty six pontiac and you drive across the country and trying to figure out where would be a good place for their donut shop and they had almost run out of money and their stand on a street corner one day and i believe his delano white and i'm a colonel rudolph

they start a pot packets cigarettes from his pocket and happened to notice that those remaining winston salem that one the rj reynolds brands and he thought well while once in selma got the spring and it is well known national brand let's let's open or doughnut shop there and at least initially his the his idea was to not sell to you and they are not to sell to the people who would come up and and and one a by down it was guinness our grocery stores it was and be a wholesale business but not seen changes since people started snowing krispy kreme doughnuts which yeah i've been enticed by that smell driving home from work many times now i understand how people started knocking on his door there was that original krispy kreme facility still there actually it's not when i'm when old salem was restored that building was torn down then and replaced with wit i believe with something to replicate the original old salem

so this came from occasion the recipe has a new recipe and that we'd get a new orleans and that is what i meant us a maine and that recipe still locked in nsa in the constraints are actually not the headquarters but in their mix manufacturing plant and i own it as anyone in winston salem cases i've been in the ram i've not seen the actual recipe but it says this room where they people are john yoo there's no frame there anything really acknowledging that it's just a small closet that every office has but it has a safe in there with the democrats subpoena noun a coffee roasting recipe which has been a more recent edition to their life and factoids is like coca cola are the closely guarded formula exactly exactly so we can't be sure this but to the best of your knowledge are the ingredients for the first krispy kreme doughnut day the same that you get

today have they evolved over time actually i think we can be sure it is that the same recipe i'm back in nineteen in the nineteen seventies when byrne and rudolph died that the company was sold to beatrix made switch was a big conglomerate and they actually changed the recipe and so in nineteen eighty two when the franchisees bought it back from beatrice they change back to the original recipe and how much does a franchise go for these days well including real estate you could spend almost two million dollars on a new ad you have to have a net worth of about five million e vendor to qualify and even if you could scrape up to two million for wine and had that net worth of five million they only like partner of people who can open multiple units said oh dear you're talking multimillionaires so is that one of the head of the twelve secrets to success that you write about it is that the genius about who's gonna be a franchise owner

exactly they picked people who are who have it proved an existing restaurant experience and you know one of their big franchisees they're the largest franchisee of burger king another guy that i spoke with for the book is that actually was friends with colonel sanders from kfc and actually helped franchise early kfc is so people who were very entrenched in the restaurant business and who know what they're doing so this idea franchisees was an idea that vernon reid i've heard from the start actually he did start a franchise interests what he called associate elaine associate stores very early i'm back in the forties actually i'm with the success of the first order in winston salem he started opening some elsewhere in the state and town but obviously that the

kind of expensive and you know one person couldn't finance that himself so he actually did have some people who are interested in opening krispy kreme is and it was actually within ten years of the first or opening in a nineteen forty seven that her rudolph licensed the name krispy kreme to a number of the service he had stabbed in their own donut shops and you know we talked about cost two million now to open a krispy kreme well it took about thirty five hundred back in those days to start a krispy kreme franchise they not money purchase production equipment bags in ten objects the chevy panel truck and initial packaging supply any installation and purchase krispy kreme approved sinks and water heaters and equipment on today will cost three hundred and fifty thousand up half a million dollars you can see the difference in cost city very early on recognized that the potential of this but it wasn't really until about the mid nineteen nineties a krispy kreme started growing in

fact in the last three years have opened more than a hundred stores slowly through their history they then grew throughout the southwest with these associate franchisees opening stores but in nineteen ninety five then ventured to indianapolis and a few years after that in new york and that's really what started the krispy kreme phenomenon that we see now that first new york store you know that big tent is back to that time i do recall when the first lyric store was opening there was a lot of hoopla and lots of very favorable press and they take out any advertising or that do they have to do or was it just they're getting so much media coverage with that well they did some very smart things locally they had an iv it party before the opening for our alumni of southern universities who were living in new york know your audience renee exactly exactly so you know they were broad almost

carolina grads in fact you were living in new york there had tried our nuts and it worked amazingly and actually no they don't do a lot of advertising at all now you may see some local advertising in a market when there's a new store opening but the strategy is not to do any national advertising blitz two to use the media coverage and during for the new york store nora ephron beyond the director and writer she wrote an essay about krispy kreme scott roy blunt jr also wrote an essay about krispy kreme zoos really doing essays in the new yorker a new york times magazine and was and it's quite funny to see their descriptions you know they are just glowingly positive on about krispy kreme a lot of southern writers well known southern writers of mencia no not rick bragg and oliver babish out and talks about krispy kreme

loosen those of favorable media coverage they have they done things wrong mean half years have there been there are downsides to a krispy kreme is done made mistakes there have been on there was an arbitration with some potential franchisee and now in california it was a seat that was filed without actually eventually settled for it through arbitration but they know that they claimed that i'm that the company gave the franchise to someone else when it promised it to them there was a case during the whole corporate accounting scandal there was this a case of jason bagley seen a situation that they set up that in the company says it was a perfectly legal way to pay for a new plant that they were that they were building in illinois but there were some stories at that time written about that but as soon as that happened they were they were up front about it and they changed their method of finance into more traditional method and then

of course there's the cases that there's the question as the stock overvalued or not and their sorrow and a lot of funny until coverage about that because they they the stock trades for a lot is a business writer do you think it is overvalued you know i always have a hard time making that does assessments i mean it does seem to have a premium valuation i remember going to the first their first annual meeting and leaving out with another reporter friend of mine and we were just chatting and just like you know the stocks never really get to be a penny stock and you know and i don't you know deferred to her judgment because she she'd been doing than a whole writing about business a lot longer and you know we were both wrong i mean it does surprise me the continued climate but you see other consumer brands that that have that kind of high valuation like a starbucks or a cheesecake factory or even on nick dance at one time and told had any

premium stock valuation you know this is a company that seems to be well they're definitely growing in terms of sales and earnings and you know they seem to be pretty pretty well entrenched and are still very popular stock with investors why individual investors there are of course other donna makers in the country i think of duncan donuts in the northeast for instance it seems the krispy kreme just as a consumer is stood out simon and one thing i think that make me makes it stand out is that hard that's our hot now something that tell me about the origin of that it actually started back in the seventies before then there was no consistent way firfer customers to know when krispy kreme was making the doughnuts and when you can get them hot off the fryer and i had a franchisee and tennessee went to jc penney

and bought you know just one does pull down when their shed and that road on that hot doughnuts now and would pull it down when when they again that's where i am haydn french in corporate office found out about that i thought that's a great idea over the years they've made that you know a center piece of their stores in its you not going to go into a krispy kreme with our hot light a lady's honor thank you so much thank you out how good time amy joyner is co author of the new book making dough the twelve secret ingredients of krispy kreme success she is a business reporter for the greensboro news and record as a state of things i'm going to that's been an issue

it ms

bonnie teller this is the state of things i melinda uncover a few months ago a cd arrived on store shelves called wildwood flower it turned out to be june carter cash his last recording most of the tunes on wildwood flower our songs originally recorded in the twenty eason thirties by june carter cash as mother maybelle and her aunt and uncle but on this new recording is june carter cash as children and grandchildren and her husband johnny cash who are singing with her for what turned out to be the last time it made just two months after the cd was completed june carter cash died keith west and one of the hosts of back porch music and w and c joins us to talk about june carter cash in the cd as well as the legacy of the first

family of country music welcome back you think you're having to keep her cash put together this cd wildwood flower show went back to her roots more ways than one in many ways in fact it's it's almost kind of an oral biography of her life she goes back to the ancestral carter family home in mesa spring virginia were the more the carters have lived for many years this cd opens up with an old carter family tune called keep on the sunny side of the theme song by the way part of family used and ready for their forties they were so the house band religion at a volume of charlotte and listen closely to this course on the swing or johnny cash charley and with june carter and also her granddaughter tiffany anastasia want and need

you know keep on the sunny side june carter cash and johnny cash i get a chill and he's just singing of course they're partnering with two voices together yeah and it's it gives you an additional chill when you realize that these are the recordings or last recordings in fact that they may be either solo or together june carter would diana what about a month and half after the cd is completed and johnny cash would pass away about four months thereafter as well this isn't a coincidence and that there is this a return to those roots of the carter family for june carter cash and making as you know johnny cash had

been ill for a number of years but was there any sense of urgency on june carter cash is part of having to record this this album at her age i don't really think so because it came as a surprise to just about everyone from fans and family including when she passed away following heart surgery she had not unlike her husband ben you know for the last ten years and so it did come as some surprise in synch shock but given your age i think she knew it was time to sort of go back to the old home place and to consider the past to remember songs that she used to sing with her mother that are such a central park to the early days of american country music the title of the cd is wildwood flower what's the story behind that or what would flour was a tune that was recorded by the carter family for at least five or six times over their career that was recorded for the first time it in nineteen twenty nine an infected better understand this record june carter cash you have to go

back to the beginning of this recording that we'll hear in just a moment come from the carter family as recorded on june's mother's birthday she had just turned nineteen sixties made elkhart is as maybelle carter here we hear for the first time what would become a landmark in american country music and here's the way it sounded with mother maybelle playing the opening guitar figure what as a common standards for country guitar me that's right and there's some surprised that is one of the most important early recordings of american country

music song itself goes back to the eighteenth sixties it was originally written as a parlor tune that was called i'll twine mid the ringlets and like many other parlor tunes and sort of tin pan alley songs of the mid nineteenth century it gets placed into the oral tradition and changes some of the archaic language changes quite a bit and the lyrics are i have here the original lyrics are meeting sixty i'd like to read this to you and then compare well with that how we just heard the carter family perform i'll twine mid the ringlets of my raven black hair the lily so pale and roses so fair the myrtles so bright with the emerald hue and the pelt are not us with eyes of bright blue going that song gets past and into oral tradition some other archaic language gets confused and if you listen to the way it really appears on the carter family and as it would be recorded for many many generations after that it becomes oh i'll twine mid my mingles and waving black hair with the roses are red in the lilies so fair and the myrtles

so bright with the emerald dew and the pale and the leader and eyes look like blue so it has really changed in the context of what you hear and this is a song that's on the new cd on june carter cash records and as it does it does or any more evolution the time she records it to the site is done by this point so those archaic words those changes are still there and here is how it sounded we reported earlier this year by june carter cash in her friends are the police because it's because long this is

it he is wildwood flower and this is the title track from the new and last june carter cash cd of which came out just a short time ago june carter cash of course passed away in may was a song that she had recorded before

because this whole cd as we've said goes back to playing a lot of the old carter family standard said pepsi taken had she recorded a song before they're searching her mother and in fact in her sister's back the nineteen fifties recorded a version there are many versions i not at least three that featured june carter cash but this certainly i think is the most stripped bare the one we really hear sort of the veins of the music coming through her voice tomorrow rugged a ragged than it has ever been before and you hear the experience of a life that comes through the song in a way that you didn't before but it was more pure perhaps you should make a reference to sing another song of her century yet on the grammy award winning album that comes out in nineteen ninety nine court press on there's a song that's based on her years in the nineteen fifties for a while she was in the actor's studio in new york city she was studying without strasburg and design and there she met marlon brando and elvis presley and some other people i think even marilyn monroe as well and she was hanging out with and she had dreams of becoming an

actress didn't really pan out but she wrote a song about it were she was wondering what might have been had she been a movie star and you're june carter cash in her song called i used to be somebody takes that song the wildwood flower and she uses it to him dreams and eight pounds bcs this because

it's been a problem it's been

june carter cash in her song called i used to be somebody it's interesting to note in passing that it was all those who first introduced them to each other day johnny cash and june carter at the time in the nineteen fifties at the sun studios in memphis tennessee they would meet later backstage at the grand ole opry and then a few years later they are would turn after each of them had been divorced a couple times marion remain a husband wife or until until the day i die and of course there's a classic song johnny cash sing news and june carter cash as i understand co wrote it with him i can read this together before they were married and this was about the process of falling in law the popular eighties it has

been johnny cash and june carter cash singing ring of fire in the early nineteen sixties and that song is also notable because i think it's the first time with country music you have this very reduced column and that would be the mexican horns become and that was something that really sort of country music the times that it sounds like the tijuana brass you are john carter cash is going to remember i think she's going to be remembered in many ways for years on the radio where her comic corn ball characters some charm the heart of rural america and also urban america as well there was it was many years before joining thousands near before johnny cash in fact on the cd there are some excerpts from her radio shows back in the nineteen forties where she wishes this almost sort of minnie

pearl tight corn ball character in some ways it's a lot of fun really a replay i'd like to hear that i'm thinking of that series is guarded national plagiarism it a pretty picture of the reverend alvin not like they may have very rather than ten grand opening the fact that donated time like only yesterday what shall be remembered for i think it's things like that but also for concealing the carter family heritage i mean when you talk about american country music to names always pop up the carter family in jimmie rodgers are seen it seen as sort of the two starting point for american country music wildwood flower will the circle be unbroken all these tunes i probably would have passed out of existence had it not been for the carter family and early recordings also should be remembered for recordings and she made with johnny cash in merry johnny cash and helping him get clean and sober and so to being a

rock in the marriage including i guess especially in the later years and both of them the security both of them on as performers that never forgot the importance of family integrity what shall we go out with what is one the song on the cd the new cd called wildwood flower we hear this version it's hard to keep the dry issues that it's an option that you miss me and this is bad guys we miss me when i'm gone from june carter cash as latest and last cds wildwood flower we've been talking with keith western between unc is back porch so much keith thank

you this says but i think for the state of things today if you have a comment about today's show drop us an email at and so tia wu and see that show support for the state of things comes from the corporation for public broadcasting i'm linda hancock