The albumn is great. It combines the best of The Carter Family into one albumn. I have all of their recordings, and this one is definitely the best. The vocals of Sara, Maybelle, & AP are timeless, if you listen to the earlier albumns, and work through their later recordings. I also recommend the Maybelle, & Sara albumn, and the Maybelle Carter, Wildwood Flower CD. These show the changes in their voices with age.
There were other pioneers of country/folk recordings in the late '20's, including Fiddlin' John Carson, Vernon Dalhart and Jimmie Rodgers, but The Carter Family has had a more lasting impact on subsequent generations than any of the other early acts. A.P. Carter scoured the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia for verses sung in the churches and homes, then arranged them to suit himself, his wife Sarah and Maybelle. Their single 78's and radio shows influenced everybody who listened in the 30's, and Woody Guthrie stole their melodies and wrote his own masterpieces on top of them in the '40's. This is a fine collection, about 48 minutes worth. Another good one, with 20 tracks instead of 16, is the Columbia Legacy disc "Can the Circle Be Unbroken?" You can't go wrong with either one. There is some duplication of songs between the two CD's but with different versions. Many younger folks might think the Carter sound is a bit too "authentic" but if you listen twice, you'll probably be hooked. Guthrie fans, and Johnny Cash fans, too, ought to own a Carter disc to learn a lot about the roots of Woody and Johnny. (And of course, Johnny married Maybelle's daughter June and was Maybelle's last employer in the music business in the '60's.) I also recommend highly the book "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?" subtitled The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music, by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg. If you like the Carters, you'll want the book. If you read the book, it makes you want to hear The Carters.
The body of this review has been used elsewhere in this space to comment on other The Carter Family CDs.
This information is from a review of a PBS documentary and serves my purpose here by bringing out the main points that are central to the place of The Carter Family in American musical history. The last paragraph will detail the outstanding tracks on this CD.
"I have reviewed the various CDs put out by the Carter Family, that is work of the original grouping of A.P., Sara and Maybelle from the 1920's , elsewhere in this space. Many of the thoughts expressed there apply here, as well. The recent, now somewhat eclipsed, interest in the mountain music of the 1920's and 30's highlighted in such films as "The Song Catcher" and George Clooney's "Brother, Where Art Thou", of necessity, had to create a renewed interest in the Carter Family. Why? Not taking the influence of that family's musical shaping of mountain music is like neglecting the influence of Bob Dylan on the folk music revival of the 1960's. I suppose it can be done but a big hole is left in the landscape.
What this PBS production has done, and done well, is put the music of the Carters in perspective as it relates to their time, their religious sentiments and their roots in the seemingly simple mountain lifestyle. Is there any simpler harmony than the virtually universally known Carter song (or better, variation) "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"? Nevertheless, these gentle mountain folk were as driven to success, especially A.P, as any urbanite of the time. Moreover, they seem, and here again A.P. is the example, to have had as many interpersonal problems (in short, marital difficulties) as us city folk.
I have mentioned elsewhere, and it bears repeating here, that the fundamentalist religious sentiment expressed throughout their work does not have that same razor-edged feel that we find with today's evangelicals. This is a very personal kind of religious expression that drives many of the songs. These evangelical people took their beating during the Scopes Trial era and turned inward. Fair enough. That they also produced some very simple and interesting music to while away their time is a product of that withdrawal. Listen."
So what is good here? Obviously the classic track "My Clinch Mountain Home" (which has many variations). The much covered "Wabash Cannonball" (again, with many variations). "Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow" (a variation) and "Hello Central! Give Me Heaven" also stick out. The others give a good feel, as well, for what this music is all about for the beginner. I would also note that unlike some other early Carter Family anthologies that I could listen to the whole CD at one time.
