June Carter recorded it between October 2002 and March 2003, the song would be included in her post-album album, Wildwood Flower, (Dualtone 2003), it was June Carter Cash’s last solo album.

June Carter recorded it between October 2002 and March 2003, the song would be included in her post-album album, Wildwood Flower, (Dualtone 2003), it was June Carter Cash’s last solo album. It was released in 2003 on the Dualtone record label, four months after his death and just a few days before the death of Johnny Cash, who provides backing vocals, making this the final release of his life. The album was produced by her son, John Carter Cash. The album’s opening track, “Keep on the Sunny Side,” was a Carter family anthem that June Carter Cash had previously recorded twice with Johnny Cash: for the 1964 Carter Family album of the same title, and for the album. Johnny Cash from 1974 The Junkie.

The album was released on September 9, 2003, and reached # 33 on the U.S. Top Country Albums charts, and on September 27 reached # 2 on the US Bluegrass Albums charts.

About the song:

“Wildwood Flower” is a variant of the song “I’ll Twine ‘Mid the Ringlets” published in 1860 by composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the music, with lyrics attributed to Maud Irving. Other versions of the song have evolved, such as “The Pale Amaranthus” (collected in Kentucky and North Carolina, reported in 1911), “Raven Black Hair” and “The Pale Wildwood Flower” (collected between 1915 and 1919) and “The Wild Wood Flower Frail «.

A.P. Carter recorded “Wildwood Flower” as his own after the recording of The Carter Family in 1928 (copyrighted on October 20, 1935), but the lyrics are almost identical to “I’ll Twine ‘Mid the Ringlets”. He converted it from a parlor song to a folk performance, and while Carter arguably does not guarantee it, he assigns adaptation status to Carter, so there is a separate grouping for “Wildwood Flower”.

Some versions:

Buddy Starcher 1947 (4 Star Records)
Maple Hill Boys 1949 (Perl Records)
Julia Ann Gilmer 1957 (ABC-Paramount)
Anita Carter 1964 (Mercury)
Jim Reeves 1968 (RCA Victor)
Larry Sparks and The Lonesome Ramblers 1970 (Pine Tree)
Stompin ‘Tom Connors 1971 (Boot Records)
Tom Collins 1972 (Starday Records)

June Carter Cash – Wildwood Flower Lyrics

Oh, I’ll twine with my mingles and waving black hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair
And the myrtles so bright with the emerald dew
The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue.

I will dance, I will sing and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm every heart in each crown I will sway
When I woke from my dream and my idols were clay
All portions of love had all flown away.

Oh, he taught me to love and promised to love
And to cherish me over all others above
How my heart is now wondering no misery can tell
He’s left me no warning no words of farewell.

Oh, he taught me to love him and call me his flower
That was blooming to cheer him through lifes dreary hour
How I long to see him and regret the dark hour
He’s gone and neglected his pale wildwood flower.
https://lyricstranslate.com