Carter Family

Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s.
They were the first vocal group to become country music stars, and were among the first groups to record commercially produced country music. Their first recordings were made in Bristol, Tennessee, under producer Ralph Peer on August 1, 1927, the day before country singer Jimmie Rodgers also made his initial recordings under Peer. Their recordings of songs such as "Wabash Cannonball", "Can the Circle Be Unbroken", "Wildwood Flower", "Keep On the Sunny Side" and "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" made these songs country standards. The tune of the last was used for Roy Acuff's "The Great Speckled Bird", Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life" and Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", making the song a hit all over again in other incarnations.
The original group consisted of Sara Carter, her husband A.P. Carter, and her sister-in-law Maybelle Carter. Maybelle was married to A.P.'s brother Ezra Carter (Eck) and was also Sara's first cousin. All three were born and raised in southwest Virginia, where they were immersed in the tight harmonies of mountain gospel music and shape note singing.
Throughout the group's career, Sara Carter sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar or autoharp, and Maybelle sang harmony and played lead guitar. On some songs A.P. did not perform at all; on some songs he sang harmony and background vocals and occasionally he sang lead. Maybelle's distinctive guitar-playing style became a hallmark of the group, and her Carter Scratch (a method for playing both lead and rhythm on the guitar) has become one of the most copied styles of guitar playing. The group (in all its incarnations....) recorded for a number of companies, including RCA Victor, ARC group, Columbia, Okeh and various imprint labels. 
(Read more at Wikipedia.)
== Links to Peel ==
The Carter Family influenced numerous folk and country artists Peel played during his radio career, among them the Incredible String Band, who recorded two versions of "Black Jack David" (not straight covers but a rewrite of the song) and on an In Concert show introduced by Peel in spring 1971 performed "You've Been A Friend To Me", a nineteenth-century song which, as band member Robin WIlliamson pointed out in his spoken introduction, they had heard first "on an old Carter Family record". In addition, later generations of the Carter Family made an impact on the music scene, notably Maybelle Carter's daughter June, who married Johnny Cash and often duetted with him on record and on stage.
But not until the early 2000s did Peel begin to play tracks by the Carter Family regularly. He was impressed by a couple of collections of material by the group, taken from old radio shows originally broadcast in the late 1930s and released by Arhoolie Records. He not only played tracks from these, but included one of the albums in the Record Box he submitted to the Radio 1 website in November and December 2002.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*None
== Sessions ==
*None
== Shows Played ==
;2000
*27 June 2000: Black Jack David (v/a CD - Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music Vol.4) Revenant
*02 August 2000: Black Jack David (v/a 2xCD - Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music Vol.4) Revenant
;2002
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*November 2002 (FSK): Cumberland Gap / Lonesome Valley (CD - On Border Radio, Vol. 1) Arhoolie
*26 November 2002: XET Station Break/Introduction/The Wandering Boy (LP - On Border Radio 1939 Vol.1) Arhoolie
*28 November 2002: My Sweetheart Is A Poor Working Girl / Waves Of The Sea (LP - On Border Radio 1939 Vol.1) Arhoolie
*03 December 2002: Cumberland Gap/Lonesome Valley (LP-On Border Radio Vol 1) Arhoolie
*05 December 2002 (Radio Eins): I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home, In The Hig (album - On Border Radio)
*11 December 2002 (Radio Mafia): (album - The Carter Family On Border Radio from Radio Station XET in Monterey Mexico In 1939 Vol 1
*12 December 2002: Untitled (Instrumental)/What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul? (LP - On Border Radio 1939 Vol.1) Arhoolie
*12 December 2002 (Radio Eins): My Sweetheart Is A Poor Working Girl/"Waves Of T (album - On Border Radio)
*12 December 2002 (Radio Mafia): Cumberland Gap/Lonesome Valley	(Arhoolie)
*17 December 2002: I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes (LP - On Border Radio 1939 Vol.1) Arhoolie
;2003
*02 January 2003 (Radio Eins): I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes (album - On Border Radio Vol. 1)
*01 April 2003: I Cannot Be Your Sweetheart/Red Wing (LP - The	Carter Family On Border Radio Vol.2) (Arhoolie)
*10 April 2003 (Radio Eins): I Cannot Be Your Sweetheart/"Redwing (album - On Border Radio Vol. 2)
;2004
*08 December 2004 (Rob Da Bank): Keep On The Sunny Side (LP-O Brothers Compilation) - (Sanctuary)
== See Also ==
*Arhoolie Records
*Cover Versions
*November 2002 (Peel's Record Box): 'On Border Radio Vol.1' (Arhoolie)
*December 2002 (Peel's Record Box): 'On Border Radio Vol.1' (Arhoolie)
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
* Other
Category:Artists