Posted By BillHeise on June 13, 2011

‘Wildwood Flower‘ from a Grand Ol’ Opry performance.

The Carter Family was one of the first bluegrass,/country music acts in America.

The 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.

The lead singer and guitar player, Maybelle Carter, was Johnny Cash’s mother-in-law. She’s awesome! As Wikipedia says, she invented one of my favorite instrumental techniques for the guitar.

Perhaps the most remarkable of Maybelle’s many talents was her skill as a guitarist. She revolutionized the instrument’s role by developing a style in which she played melody lines on the bass strings with her thumb while rhythmically strumming with her fingers. Her innovative technique, to this day known as the Carter Scratch, influenced the guitar’s shift from rhythm to lead instrument. —Holly George-Warren

Here’s a few more Carter family songs:

‘Can the Circle Be Unbroken‘

This song represents the deeply religion tradition of country music. There is no closure in this life. Instead, the circle of life can only be completed ‘in the sky’ after we are dead. This is a distinctly un-Disney reflection on the circle of life, but in many ways is more satisfying (at least to me).

But not all was sorrow and rain. They also recorded ‘Keep on the Sunny Side of Life,’ a song about remaining happy during a life of abiding misery.

There’s a dark and a troubled side of life
There’s a bright and a sunny side, too
Tho’ we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view

The ‘Sunny Side’ is, of course, something we cannot see in this life.

They also recorded ‘Wabash Cannonball,’ a song that captures the Depression era with its lyrics about hobos, trains, and death. Perfect country song.

In 1936, Roy Acuff recorded his version, and it sold 10 million copies, a feat matched by by fewer than 30 other singles, according to Wikipedia.

Oh, listen to the jingle, the rumor and the roar
As she glides along the woodland, o’r hills and by the shore
She climbs the flowery mountain, hear the merry hobos squall
She glides along the woodland, the Wabash Cannonball.

In the ‘interesting-but-completely-unknown’ fact department, Wikipedia tells us that the Carter Family was responsible for

The Carter Family Song “Wayworn Traveller” was covered by a young Bob Dylan, who wrote his own words to the melody and named it “Paths Of Victory”; this recording is featured on Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3. After writing that song, he wrote new words to the melody and changed the time signature to 3/4, thus creating one of his most famous songs, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”

Apparently, the ‘Times’ were changing, but they were drawing on a much older tradition. Thought you’d like to know.

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