Maybelle Carter
Encyclopedia
"Mother" Maybelle Carter (May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American
country
musician
. She is best known as a member of the historic Carter Family
act in the 1920s and 1930s and also as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.
, Virginia
, the daughter of Hugh Jackson Addington and Margaret S. Kilgore. According to family lore, the Addington family of Virginia is descended from former British prime minister Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
.
On March 13, 1926, Maybelle married Ezra J. Carter. They had three daughters, Helen
, Valerie June
(better known in later life as June Carter Cash), and Anita
.
She was a member of the original Carter Family
, which was formed in 1927 by her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter
, who was married to her cousin, Sara
, also a part of the trio. It was perhaps the first commercial rural Country music group. Maybelle was the guitar
ist and also played autoharp
and banjo
; she created a unique sound for the group with her innovative 'scratch' style of guitar playing, also called Carter Family picking
, where she used her thumb to play melody on the bass and middle strings, and her index finger to fill out the rhythm.
She was widely respected and loved by the Grand Ole Opry
community of the early 1950s, and was popularly known as "Mother Maybelle" and a matriarchal figure in country music circles although only in her forties at the time. Maybelle and her daughters toured during the 1950s and 1960s as "Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters" but after the death of A. P. Carter in 1960 the group revived the name "The Carter Family", frequently touring with Johnny Cash (her son-in-law from 1968 on); the group were regular performers on Cash's weekly network variety show
from 1969-71. Maybelle briefly reunited with former Carter Family member, Sara Carter, during the 1960s folk music craze, with Sara singing lead and Maybelle providing harmony as before.
Maybelle Carter made occasional solo recordings during the 1960s and 1970s, usually full-length albums. Her final such work, a two-record set released on Columbia Records, placed on Billboard
s best-selling country albums chart in 1973 when she was 64. Maybelle was also featured on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken
.
Maybelle Carter died in 1978 after a few years of poor health, and was interred next to her husband, Ezra, in Hendersonville Memory Gardens
, Hendersonville
, Tennessee
. All three of their daughters, "The Carter Sisters" - Helen
, June
, and Anita
- are buried nearby in the same cemetery.
in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970.
In 1993, her image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family. In 2001 she was initiated into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
. She would rank #8 in CMT
's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music in 2002. In 2005
, she was portrayed by Sandra Ellis Lafferty in the Johnny Cash
biopic Walk the Line
.
She was the subject of her granddaughter Carlene Carter
's 1990 song "Me and the Wildwood Rose
".
In 2010, Lipscomb University
in Nashville named the stage in Collins Alumni Auditorium after her.
See The Carter Family for albums with A.P. & Sara or with her daughters.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. She is best known as a member of the historic Carter Family
Carter Family
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...
act in the 1920s and 1930s and also as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters.
Biography
Maybelle Carter was born Maybelle Addington on May 10, 1909 in NickelsvilleNickelsville, Virginia
Nickelsville is a town in Scott County, Virginia, United States. The population was 383 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kingsport–Bristol –Bristol Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson City–Kingsport–Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, the daughter of Hugh Jackson Addington and Margaret S. Kilgore. According to family lore, the Addington family of Virginia is descended from former British prime minister Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, PC was a British statesman, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804....
.
On March 13, 1926, Maybelle married Ezra J. Carter. They had three daughters, Helen
Helen Carter
Helen Myrl Carter was an American country music singer. The eldest daughter of Maybelle Carter, she performed with her mother and her younger sisters, June Carter and Anita Carter, as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, a pioneering all female country/folk music group...
, Valerie June
June Carter Cash
Valerie June Carter Cash was an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedienne and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash...
(better known in later life as June Carter Cash), and Anita
Anita Carter
Ina Anita Carter , the youngest daughter of Ezra and Mother Maybelle Carter, was a versatile American singer who experimented with several different types of music and played stand-up bass with her sisters Helen Carter and June Carter Cash as The Carter Sisters...
.
She was a member of the original Carter Family
Carter Family
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...
, which was formed in 1927 by her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter
A. P. Carter
Alvin Pleasant Delaney Carter , best known as A.P. Carter, was an American musician and founding member of The Carter Family, one of the most notable acts in the history of country music.-Life:...
, who was married to her cousin, Sara
Sara Carter
Sara Carter was an American Country music musician. Known for her deep and distinctive singing voice, she was the lead singer on most of the recordings of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s....
, also a part of the trio. It was perhaps the first commercial rural Country music group. Maybelle was the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist and also played autoharp
Autoharp
The autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...
and banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
; she created a unique sound for the group with her innovative 'scratch' style of guitar playing, also called Carter Family picking
Carter Family picking
Carter Family picking, also known as "'thumb brush' technique or the 'Carter lick,' and also the 'church lick' and the 'Carter scratch'", is a style of fingerstyle guitar named for Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family's distinctive style of rhythm guitar in which the melody is played on the bass...
, where she used her thumb to play melody on the bass and middle strings, and her index finger to fill out the rhythm.
She was widely respected and loved by the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
community of the early 1950s, and was popularly known as "Mother Maybelle" and a matriarchal figure in country music circles although only in her forties at the time. Maybelle and her daughters toured during the 1950s and 1960s as "Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters" but after the death of A. P. Carter in 1960 the group revived the name "The Carter Family", frequently touring with Johnny Cash (her son-in-law from 1968 on); the group were regular performers on Cash's weekly network variety show
The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)
The Johnny Cash Show was an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No...
from 1969-71. Maybelle briefly reunited with former Carter Family member, Sara Carter, during the 1960s folk music craze, with Sara singing lead and Maybelle providing harmony as before.
Maybelle Carter made occasional solo recordings during the 1960s and 1970s, usually full-length albums. Her final such work, a two-record set released on Columbia Records, placed on Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s best-selling country albums chart in 1973 when she was 64. Maybelle was also featured on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a 1972 album officially by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but with collaboration from many famous Bluegrass and country-western players, including Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Bashful Brother Oswald, Norman Blake, Jimmy...
.
Maybelle Carter died in 1978 after a few years of poor health, and was interred next to her husband, Ezra, in Hendersonville Memory Gardens
Hendersonville Memory Gardens
Hendersonville Memory Gardens located at 353 East Main Street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, USA was formerly known as Woodlawn Memorial Park East...
, Hendersonville
Hendersonville, Tennessee
Hendersonville is a city in Sumner County, Tennessee, United States, on Old Hickory Lake. The population was 51,372 at the 2010 census. Hendersonville is part of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located 18 miles northeast of downtown Nashville. The city was settled around 1784 by...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. All three of their daughters, "The Carter Sisters" - Helen
Helen Carter
Helen Myrl Carter was an American country music singer. The eldest daughter of Maybelle Carter, she performed with her mother and her younger sisters, June Carter and Anita Carter, as a member of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, a pioneering all female country/folk music group...
, June
June Carter Cash
Valerie June Carter Cash was an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedienne and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash...
, and Anita
Anita Carter
Ina Anita Carter , the youngest daughter of Ezra and Mother Maybelle Carter, was a versatile American singer who experimented with several different types of music and played stand-up bass with her sisters Helen Carter and June Carter Cash as The Carter Sisters...
- are buried nearby in the same cemetery.
Legacy
Maybelle Carter was inducted as part of The Carter FamilyCarter Family
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...
in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970.
In 1993, her image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family. In 2001 she was initiated into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
Induction to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, called the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor from its creation in 1991 through 2006, is managed by the International Bluegrass Music Association, and the Hall itself is maintained at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in...
. She would rank #8 in CMT
CMT
- Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia...
's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music in 2002. In 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
, she was portrayed by Sandra Ellis Lafferty in the Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
biopic Walk the Line
Walk the Line
Walk the Line is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by James Mangold and based on the early life and career of country music artist Johnny Cash...
.
She was the subject of her granddaughter Carlene Carter
Carlene Carter
Carlene Carter is an American country singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter and her first husband, Carl Smith....
's 1990 song "Me and the Wildwood Rose
I Fell in Love
I Fell in Love is a studio album, released in 1990 by Carlene Carter. This is also her highest ranking Billboard album of her career, at #19 on the US Country charts. Four singles from the album also charted, with the title song "I Fell in Love," and "Come on Back" both reaching #3 as singles...
".
In 2010, Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The campus is located in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville between Belmont Boulevard to the west and Granny White Pike on the east...
in Nashville named the stage in Collins Alumni Auditorium after her.
Solo Albums Discography
| Year | Album | US Country | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Mother Maybelle Carter | Ambassador Records | |
| 1963 | Mother Maybelle and Her Autoharp | Smash Records Smash Records Smash Records is an American record label. It was founded in 1961 as a subsidiary of Mercury Records by Mercury executive Shelby Singleton and run by Singleton with Charlie Fach. Fach took over after Singleton left Mercury in 1966... |
|
| 1963 | Pickin' and Singin | ||
| 1964 | Queen of the Autoharp | Kapp Records Kapp Records Kapp Records was an independent record label started in 1954 by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp . David Kapp founded his own label after stints with Decca Records and RCA Victor Records. Kapp licensed its records to London Records for release in the UK.In 1967, David Kapp sold his label to MCA Inc... |
|
| 1965 | A Living Legend | Columbia Records Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... |
|
| 1973 | Mother Maybelle Carter | 44 |
See The Carter Family for albums with A.P. & Sara or with her daughters.
Sources
- Wolfe, Charles. (1998). "Carter Family". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 84–85.
- Zwonitzer, Mark with Charles Hirshberg. (2002). Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?: The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music. New York: Simon & Schuster.