For years, Carter struggled with a drug addiction that took her lover, Howie Epstein of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and other close friends. Her sister Rosie died of similar means, within months of the passing of her mother, June Carter Cash, and stepfather Johnny Cash. Her recovery came in fits. When it finally set in, she poured her heartache into a comeback album, Stronger. The sassy livewire of her early years still shoots out sparks on occasion, but Stronger reveals a newly matured artist who presses on with a humbled heart. She recorded the album with her half-brother, John Carter Cash, at the family's cabin studio in Hendersonville. She's since moved to Los Angeles, but this album is pure Tennessee. —MICHAEL McCALL
