CARTER FAMILY, THE ‘‘ORIGINAL’’

CARTER FAMILY, THE ‘‘ORIGINAL’’ (Alvin marriage dissolved in 1932. They gained great expo- Pleasant [A. P.] C., b. Maces Spring, Va., December sure in the late 1930s while working on XERA, the 15, 1891–November 7, 1960 [voc]; Sara Dougherty famous “border” radio station that, because it broad- C., b. Flat Woods, Va., July 21, 1898–January 8, 1979 cast out of Mexico, was unregulated in the U.S. and [autoharp, voc]; Maybelle Addington C., b. Nick- thus had a much more powerful, and far-reaching, sig- elsville, Va., May 10, 1909–October 23, 1978 [gtr, nal than U.S. commercial stations. Various Carter voc]) daughters were also getting into the act. The last “origi- The Carter Family were one of the first and most nal” Carter family performance came in 1943. popular country vocal groups; their unornamented, In the late 1940s Maybelle performed with her nasal harmonies, born and bred in rural church music, daughters (Anita, b. Ina A. C., Maces Spring, Va., are probably the closest we can come to a pure “white” March 31, 1933–July 30, 1999 [voc, b, gtr]; June, b. Appalachian sound. The group coalesced around Alvin Valerie J. C., Maces Spring, Va., June 23, 1929 [voc, Pleasant (known as “A. P.”) Carter, his wife, Sara, and autoharp, gtr]; and Helen, b. H. Myrl C., Maces Spring, his sister-in-law Maybelle. Sara usually sang lead and Va., September 12, 1927–June 2, 1998 [voc, gtr, auto- played the autoharp, with Alvin on bass vocals and harp, accordion]) as The Carter Family; the girls also Maybelle on tenor and GUITAR. A. P., a master collector performed as a more modern-sounding country act, of traditional songs, reworked them into pleasant and The Carter Sisters. Mother and daughters became memorable melodies that became the first country members of THE GRAND OLE OPRY in 1950. Mean- music hits, including “Keepon the Sunny Side,” “The while, A. P. recorded in the early 1950s with his chil- Storms Are on the Ocean,” “Wildwood Flower,” “Bury dren Janette (b. Maces Spring, Va., July 2, 1932) and Me Beneath the Willow,” and their best-known song, Joe (b. Maces Spring, Va., February 27, 1927). May- “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” an adaptation of a belle was “rediscovered” during the 1960s FOLK RE- SHAPE-NOTE hymn. VIVAL, and became a popular performer on the auto- Their first and greatest success came recording harp, picking melodies on it rather than just strumming under the supervision of RALPH PEER for RCA Victor chords. She was also prominently featured on the from 1927 to 1933. Exact contemporaries of JIMMIE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND’s homage to country-music RODGERS, with whom they made a few comedy sketch celebration, Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, in 1971. records, the Carters were almost straitlaced in their Although Sara performed with Maybelle at the 1967 approach to their music. Although the trio did record Newport Folk Festival, she was mostly inactive after some blues numbers, and Maybelle also played some A. P.’s death in 1960. Janette Carter runs the Carter slide guitar, they showed less African-American influ- Family Homestead in Virginia, which includes a mu- ence in their performance style and repertoire than seum with memorabilia of the family’s music career many other white acts. For some this makes their music plus a dance/concert hall that features BLUEGRASS and excruciatingly bland; for others the beauty lies in the country acts. She recorded a duet album with her simplicity of their four-square harmonies. brother Joe in the 1970s. The groupcontinued to record through the later The Carters remain influential for introducing a 1930s and early 1940s, even though A. P. and Sara’s great number of folk standards into the country reper- toire and for popularizing a smooth, tight harmony style. They were neither virtuoso musicians nor vocal- ists; indeed, they sounded much like the “folks next door,” undoubtedly a large part of their appeal. But their down-home harmonies and simple accompani- ments made them models for hundreds of other family bands, and changed the shape of country music from rural entertainment to a popular, mainstream sound.

Select Discography Complete Recordings, Rounder 1064–1072. Follow- ing their similar series devoted to Jimmie Rodgers, Rounder is reissuing all of The Carter Family’s orig- inal Victor recordings in chronological order. On Border Radio, JEMF 101. Recordings from their The Carter Family: Maybelle (with guitar and glasses), Sara (autoharp), and A. P. on the family homestead, c. 1928. Photo: days working out of Mexico. University of North Carolina, Southern Historical Collection, Clinch Mountain Treasures, County 112. Late 1930s/ Southern Folklife Collection, University Archives early 1940s recordings of the original Carters.

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