Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZCARTER FAMILYVocal and instrumental trio of enormous influence on American music: A. P. Carter (b Alvin Pleasant Carter, 15 December 1891, Mace Springs VA; d there 7 November 1960), aka 'Doc', sang bass lines, played some fiddle, collected songs; wife Sara (b Sara Dougherty, 21 July 1899, Wise Co. VA; married A. P. 18 June 1915; d 8 January 1979, Lodi CA), sang lead, played guitar, autoharp; Maybelle (b Maybelle Addington, 10 May 1909, Copper Creek VA; d 23 October 1978, Nashville; Sara's cousin, married A. P.'s brother Ezra), sang harmony, played guitar, autoharp. Sara and A. P. had 16 brothers and sisters between them; A. P. worked for a nursery and met her when he sold her some fruit trees. The trio drove to Bristol TN with Ezra and made their first records for Ralph Peer in August 1927, the same day as Jimmie Rodgers, with ultimate influence equal and opposite to his: while he established blues and vaudeville elements of country music, theirs was the folk component. They emphasized songs (other period groups were instrumentalists whose singing was often incidental). Sara's mastery of the autoharp was a mainstay of the traditional sound; Maybelle played melody on the bass strings of the guitar, rhythm on treble: the influential 'Carter style'. A. P. had an improvisatory method of coming in with bass harmony when he felt like it; ballads that A. P. collected or wrote (at any rate, copyrighted) were often of ancient lineage, still being sung many years later by the Weavers ('I Never Will Marry'), Joan Baez ('Wildwood Flower', 'Little Moses'), Flatt and Scruggs ('Jimmy Brown The Newsboy'), Emmylou Harris ('Hello Stranger'), Roy Acuff ('Wabash Cannon Ball'), many others. 'I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes' has countless recordings, the tune also adapted by Acuff for 'Great Speckled Bird'. They made more than 100 sides for Victor 1927-35 including many country classics: 'My Clinch Mountain Home', 'Foggy Mountain Top', 'Church In The Wildwood', 'Worried Man Blues', 'Diamonds In The Rough', 'Lonesome Valley', 'Keep On The Sunny Side' (the pop tune from 1906 became their theme), gospel hymn 'Anchored In Love', 'Little Darling Pal Of Mine' (later a bluegrass standard). They learned 'Wildwood Flower' orally in the mountains, but there was a published version 1860; it may have sold a million, phenomenal for the time: they were paid $75 to record it. They recorded with Rodgers in 1932; A. P. and Sara separated '33 but recorded together until '43. The original group recorded for Decca, OKeh and ARC '35-40, broadcasting from '38 on powerful Mexican border radio; already famous, they reached a wider public than ever. A final Victor session in '41 raised the trio's total to over 250 sides. Japanese RCA once issued complete The Original Carter Family 1927-34, 1941 in a ten-LP set. The Complete Victor Recordings are being issued on Rounder; the first four CDs brought the series up to '30: Anchored In Love, My Clinch Mountain Home, When The Roses Bloom In Dixieland, Worried Man Blues. A complete Carter box is also available on Bear Family. Mexican transcriptions were compiled by the John Edwards Memorial Foundation, UCLA, based on a legacy from an Australian country music fan who bequeathed a large collection of material to the U. of California; Vol. 1 appeared on an Arhoolie CD (On Border Radio 1939, from XET, Monterey); there have also been compilations on Columbia and MCA. |