Bolstered by the surprise success of the Matraca Berg/Gary Harrison-penned paean to lost innocence "Strawberry Wine" (and possibly the boldest album title ever to come out of Nashville), Deana Carter's Did I Shave My Legs for This? was widely hailed by critics and fans as one of the freshest country debuts in recent memory. The 1996 album, quadruple platinum and counting, earned Carter three No. 1 country singles and a bushel of award nominations, including two for the Grammies and six for the Country Music Awards. It was, by all accounts, a modestly auspicious start.

In the wake of Did I Shave's success, Carter -- the daughter of noted Nashville session guitarist Fred Carter -- could have easily coasted along with a sophomore soundalike effort tailor-made for modern country radio. Instead, her recently released Everything's Gonna Be All Right pushes the country envelope at every opportunity, with heavy doses of sunny pop (Melanie's Seventies roller skating anthem, "Brand New Key") and even a salacious, southern rock guitar rave-up ("The Train Song") fueled by guests Lynyrd Skynyrd. And though the optimistically titled album hasn't turned up a "Strawberry Wine" flavored radio smash just yet, its strong reviews and gold status after a mere two months bear strong witness to the power of positive thinking.

Do you think of Everything's Gonna Be All Right as a country record, or is it something more?

I think it's a pretty good expression of my personality. I'm Southern. I think it's country, and I think it's a lot of things. I'm in a difficult spot because of the diverse musical background I have. I was born and raised in Nashville, but that music didn't influence me as much as everything else. But it comes out of me naturally because that's where I'm from. I walk a real fine line because I don't ever want to deny being country, but at the same time I'm so much more, too. I always liked the side of country that was a little more rebellious, anyway. I liked Olivia Newton John, and what was she? She wasn't country. I liked [Linda] Ronstadt. I loved all the Southern music, like the Allman Brothers, and Skynyrd, and to me Tom Petty is Southern. I was always attracted to what was in the cracks more so than the mainstream.

So with your father being the big session player in town, did he stick a guitar in your lap as soon as you could sit up?

No. I played piano growing up. But my dad gave me a guitar that was made for him my senior year in college, and that's when I started playing, just teaching myself. But I'm going to have a few months at home here in the first half of next year, and I'm going to set weekly appointments with him just so he can now show me. Since I know the basics, I can probably learn a lot more from him -- some leads and solos and stuff like that. I used to play on my stuff before I had a record deal. But when you have the players available to you that you do after you get a deal, you're like, 'I don't want to shoot myself in the foot when I could have somebody way better than me playing.' But I think I'm going to get back into it. It will be a gradual thing.

Your album came out on Capitol just before the same label issued Garth Brooks' Double Live. Given all the talk about selling a million copies of that album in a week, were you worried at all about being short-changed, promotion-wise?

I didn't really. Honestly, they wanted it to be released a little sooner, but our management wanted to make sure that the marketing was in place for us before we just threw a record out there. There's so much behind-the-scenes stuff going on that you want to make sure you're making an impact when you're coming out. I'm certainly glad they didn't do it the same week. At least I got two weeks. But I try not to pay attention. If you consume yourself with that stuff, you'll go nuts. I just look at my own little project and row my own little boat.

But when the first album sold four million albums, didn't you get caught up a bit?

When it hit me was when they nominated me for six CMA awards. That was a big deal, because, more than anything, I'm sitting at the awards and everybody's looking at me. I'd gone to the awards the year before and nobody knew who I was, so it was a little bizarre. But after that, I swear to you I still don't feel any different. I have hopes for this new record to do really well so that it can prove that I'm worthy. But other than that, I just think it's great that the first record is still going, which blows my mind.

So what type of pressure did that put on you when you went into make this record?

The best advice my dad ever gave me when everybody was freaking out over this record, he said, "The people who bought your first album are two years older now, and you're two years older, and you've been through a lot. You've got to think about the fourteen-year-old who's now driving, the college kid who's now got a gig, the parents who are now grandparents. There's a lot of changes, so you need to continue to move forward and don't try to re-create what's already been done." And that was really great advice, because that opened up a door of freedom for me.

So what's been the reaction so far to your version of Melanie's "Brand New Key?"

People either love it or hate it. It's like, "I swear I'm not trying to be cute!" The label wanted one more song, and I just thought that would be fun.

Were you a roller girl growing up?

I was never allowed to have roller skates as a child. That's why I love that song, because I would go, "Mom, you hear that?" Skating was the big thing. That was the biggest thing you could do every weekend. I guess they were scared I would get hurt. So I had to do the rental deal at the skate center. I always had the brown skates (laughs). But I just got my niece a pair of Barbie skates for her birthday, so I could live vicariously through her.

RICHARD SKANSE
(December 28, 1998)