Maybelle Carter & Family - The Henrico Years Documentary (2012)

[Music] so [Music] [Music] when you first put a needle down on a 78 and you hear that sound you know it was a very unique and genuine sound [Music] the lilting music of the carter family sprang from the hills of southwest virginia but it flowered in henrico county for about six years during the 1940s mabel carter and her young daughters helen june and anita set roots in central virginia it was during this time that the carters recast their family's legendary musical act earned a living and shaped their talents for the masses they liked henrico yeah they lived on mountain road and the house is still there when mother maybelle and the three girls started they started out in richmond and lived in richmond well everybody in glen allen liked them because they were just plain down to earth country people all of them were very talented there was a vaudeville quality to mother maybelle helen june and anita there was a show quality they all had their special talents whereas i think the earlier version of the carter family with ap sarah and maybelle was the purest form of the music [Music] the original carter family act was formed decades earlier on clinch mountain in southwest virginia's coal country you could say it started in 1914 that's when alvin pleasant carter a musically inclined lanky young man roamed to another side of the mountain as the story goes he stopped when he heard singing and looked into the dark eyes of sixteen-year-old sarah dougherty the couple married and were later joined by sarah's guitar playing cousin mabel addington she too became a carter once her pale blue eyes had charmed ap's younger brother ezra together ap sarah and maybelle played music that blended the gospel old ballads and whatever else was ringing from the mountainside porches and churches ap would go out and search for songs he would literally leave for days on end he was a wanderer and would go out into the hillside and recover these great songs and would bring them back for sarah and mabel to learn with him and that's what gave them the fuel to basically carry that musical style they put their twist on traditional music you know those songs came from traditional places that were back in the hills and the hollers from the middle 1800s up through when ap found them and ap would bring them back and then sarah and maybelle would work them out with ap and toe and they would make it countless the memory off my birthplace in my boobs [Music] ralph pierre was he was a talent scout for rca victor records he was recording local talent throughout the south and he was looking for talent to record and they went to bristol the carter family ap sir and maybelle and recorded on the second day of august 1927. they took off they sold real well and then they called them back for several more sessions and then they recorded from 27 to about 1943 as a family group when he heard them i think he knew he had a winner and there's a great story about the sessions where they didn't even know the records had come out the first one and uh it happened to be down in bristol where the recordings had happened and heard one of their records being played on the street in front of the the record store and and that was when they discovered that their records had actually been issued there's an honesty to it that's just undeniable it's magic i mean it's it's hard to know how where that came from but it's really remarkable [Music] were married and they divorced which was kind of unheard of back at that time you didn't hear of a lot of divorces and when they divorced it made it hard for them to work together from what i understand maybe it was just awkward and sarah neville did have the um the feel for the music that maybelle did sarah liked to do the recordings but she didn't like personal appearances and i've heard maybe i'll say it and i've heard sarah also said that she didn't care for the personals [Music] their country music but they're more like a traditional mountain country music bluegrass music gospel music mix it's uh all mixed up in one you know they're not like today's country [Music] [Applause] the carter family made quite a mark arranging and recording scores of hit records but ap and sarah's split forced to change while the two once anchored the group it was now maybelle's turn to lead the girls helen june and anita were still young but they proved their worth in carrying the family's musical tradition they forged east drawn by a small radio station in the big city richmond in 1943 mabel took her girls and they saw a ad in richmond virginia that they were looking for talent on wrnal radio so they took the bus from poor valley up to richmond and helen said when they got up there the guy that was supposed to interview him it was time for him to go to a meeting or to lunch or something and he told him they'd have to come back later and they explained to him they were on the bus and they had to catch a bus back home so he said well get your instruments and give me one song so she said they got all the instruments out and started looking at one another what are we going to do you know what should we do and he said oh your corn is hell i'ma hire you so she said they didn't even have to do a song they just packed up went back to mesa springs to move back to richmond so they moved to richmond and they lived in several locations i know they lived on mountain road and a couple different places in richmond rnl was a small station but the fact is it was a base of operations for them they were allowed to set up many small stations where were made to be a base of operations for an artist or a group where they would primarily set up would work out of derive fans and then would promote themselves from within the station to build impact for themselves outside in the market it's one thing to hear maybelles versions and that beautiful harmony that beautiful lead vocal that beautiful style but it was another thing to hear with the sisters because you had these harmonies there that were never there before [Music] they were just totally explosive that people you know the people still say that when they put the record needle down and they hear that sound it makes an impact on them like the beatles made an impact on ed sullivan thanks to the power of radio mother maybelle and the carter sisters saw their popularity explode they became polished professional entertainers and cheered [Music] extensively in 1946 they landed a spot with virginia's largest radio station wrva and its premiere stage for hillbilly fun time now for the old dominion barn [Music] dancer again we thought it was a big deal we were going to the old dominion bar dance that was a big thing in the 40s and 50s the old dominion barn dance was very important to what was going on in virginia's culture and also east coast culture because it broadcast it went out so far it's the signal stretched so far but the impact was so great because for those people who couldn't get to the live show if they didn't go down to the lyric theater and see the shows or were there personally they would listen to the radio well the old dominion bond dance was very very nice in fact it was the only place to go in richmond that had that type of show and i know my parents used to take us down and that was their outing on saturday nights people went down lads at the older theater down at ninth and broad and there was always a big crowd there and i liked country music so that's why i enjoyed it so much that was our saturday night fun i guess you'd call it the entertainment in richmond and the surrounding area nothing around here like it just like we promised here again are the stars of the old diminished vine dance all wound up ready to sing and play and transcribe those hillbilly western tunes you've been waiting to hear but there's no more waiting cause it's time for celebrating on the old dominion fine dance today you could have audiences of two to three thousand people and that's how these bands knew they were doing something special they would go from playing to audiences of 30 to 40 to 50 people to playing the audiences of a thousand to two thousand at a time and really realizing that their impact was growing so it was a very electrical atmosphere it was where people wanted to be it was where the artists wanted to be because they were promoting and honing their craft and it was it was a party for them that was a big thing to go to the bond dance on saturday night i mean you just felt real special when you went down the garden sisters were stars of the stage but they also led normal lives helen the oldest had finished school by the time the family arrived in central virginia june graduated from john marshall high in richmond anita the youngest attended the old glen allen school in henrico the family moved to the county in 1947 by a two-story home on what used to be mountain road it still stands today near where old mountain road joins old springfield road despite address changes the girls developed fast friendships with other teens and left quite an impression i grew up in the neighborhood with them they over in barton heights in richmond i knew june i went eventually went to school with junior john marshall high school they were just nice people and you always felt welcome when you went in that house it wasn't anything like going through a line you just you just went in that was them that was they were there that was it i'd call a regular girl and are talented regular girl talented singer and a regular girl very pleasant and nothing highfalutin about her she was in a chorus and in a choir and i think she probably was in a play or two i don't remember the play if it was one i don't remember that much about it but uh i guess i don't know anybody could compete with it and at that time the cadet goal was something you really were proud to be in you had to be a rat for a year june she was a sponsor but that was a big to do then they have you had sponsors day once a year and everybody a lot of students came down and all the sponsors would be down there to be painting the colors on it was a pleasure you met her i wouldn't have any hesitating like oh anyone any girl i know who grew up like her would have been fine with me anita went to school with me and i had four big brothers and you know how they know all the girls and so one of them was in the same class that june was in and so we just all got acquainted through that being in the neighborhood anita went to chandler with me and then we went to john marshall and during our first semester john marshall i'm not sure whether she completed the whole semester or whether she moved when we got into school in june to glenn allen a lot of people didn't know that they ever lived in glen island but they did they lived on mountain road england allen and i first met anita when she was going to glen island high school and we rode the same school bus so we got to know each other and she was a good friend over the years we would go to their house on sunday afternoons mainly because that's when they were free and they would just open their doors to everybody to come in anybody that wanted to come the house was open if you wanted to eat fine if you didn't that was fine if you wanted to join in into music that was fine also but they they were just open honest country people you didn't have to have a reason you just go around but you always felt welcome and i used to tell june i said i don't know will you let all of us come in here you would do what was called a guitar pull you would sit around and you would pick up you would play everybody's instrument and you would pick songs you would call out songs okay which one do you want to do and you know these jam sessions still happen today mother mae bell helen june and anita did these house parties and were able to bring people over that would play music with them i would say that they formulated their act formulated that program i don't know what kind of a program they had of music before they came but i know that they were putting it together when they were here i guess i know because oh i think the well they were trying things out let's put it that way to see see what people liked and what they didn't like everybody around here knew where they were going up the carters honed their act for the old dominion barn dance wherever they could in living rooms schools churches and community centers their shows provided wholesome family fun and charmed audiences of all ages all i remember is the carter sisters at the elko community sector that was probably the most outstanding thing that we ever had down there as far as other entertainment was concerned a lot of those acts in the beginning when they were starting out that's what they did they probably appeared in all the local churches at the local schools and at the local community centers everybody was just interacting with each other and they would see nice things that were good unless from the six month old to the 96 year old everybody would enjoy it and that's what kind of entertainment they had they caught his sisters practiced in elko before they made it big to be cub legends i'm a member of glen allen baptist church we had church services at that time on sunday night and they would come and and do singing for us and everybody just loved it it was just plain old country church at that time mother mabel's faith was strong and all of her daughters they didn't always get to go to church because of the you know the shows and the traveling and all but they went helen said they went every chance they got and they used to sing in church they had a lot of class they had they had faith they were religious people a lot of but half of their music was religious music you know half of their songs were religious mother maybelle had the faith and drive to make the carter family a success that doesn't mean the life of a country music artist was easy traveling to shows meant long cramped car rides but maybelle proved her medal those girls would be going to school and june was going to john marshall so i could keep up with her they'd go somewhere like brookfield tonight mama maybe would drive them down and drive them back they go to bed and get up in the morning go to school the next day most of the time i did on the weekend but if something came up unusual in the middle of the week mama may bell she had that heavy foot boy she'd take off that thing and we guys thought that was neat see or cool as it said nandi they drove a white kaiser and that white castle they had all the instruments in the car with them and you could hardly see them for the instruments in there i remember that big base that the anita played was up in the back you could hardly see anybody yeah that was true i've heard them tell that but how they'd all pack in the car with their instruments and go and then they got a little trailer that they pulled behind the car and helen said they were coming out of petersburg one night pouring down rain and maybelle was known for driving wide open she didn't know but one speed because they had to get where they had to go and a lot of times not very much time in between you know maybe i'll say girl she said get up quick she said there goes a little trailer just like i was and the trailer had come unhooked from the car and passed them helen said it passed them i don't know but she said it passed them on the right hand side and went through this man's fence about two o'clock in the morning and the tongue of it just knocked his steps right off his porch and uh she said her mother was about to die she got out you know she was so sorry and he said well what are you doing at this time of morning with these young girls two o'clock in the morning and she said well i'm maybe i'll carter and we play on the richmond radio station uh and we were down here doing the show and she said somehow my trailer come unhooked and passed us and she said we've just torn your fence down and we've knocked your steps down and she said we need to pay you for the damage and he said no he said ma'am you don't have trouble he said we have trouble and what they'd done they'd run their little trailer in the middle of this man's mother's wake his mother passed away and they were having the weight that night so anyway helen said they took them in and fed them all kinds of cake and fried chicken and potato salad and whatever they had you know and she said then they asked him to do the circle being broken around his dead mother so she said they got their instruments out and played that song and sang it for that family that night and she said that song to her meant more that night than anywhere they ever played it [Music] mother maybelle had been playing guitar since she was a girl on clitch mountain but over the years she crafted a plane style that allowed her to pick out a song's melody while strumming the rhythm the technique created such a new full sound that it was given the carter name the card of scratch that mother mabel played was she played the lead with her thumb on the upper strings and then she put in the the rhythm with her finger at the bottom on the bottom strings there are guitar players out there today who still work on getting the card or scratch down the way you pick with your thumb and your forefinger and they work at it and work at it work at it and a lot of them don't get it that was the one thing that really struck ralph pierre about her when they went to make their first records was the way she picked the league out on the guitar because at that time the guitar really wasn't the lead instrument not per se she brought it to the forefront what mother may bell and the carter sisters did was and after leaving sarah nap she was allowed to hone her craft in richmond she was allowed to go throughout richmond with her daughters playing these places and really develop a sound and a style that nobody else had even though they sounded old-time their music was really kind of revolutionary maybelle's guitar style was not guitar was not an important instrument in old time music banjo and fiddle were the core of the old time string band she made the guitar really a key instrument and she had that wonderful thumb lead style that she played which is really unique almost banjo-like this would be the car to scratch style do something like that only she paid it a lot better than i do like a good song the carter's time in racco eventually reached its end in 1948 the family cut ties with wrva and the old dominion barn dance bigger stages awaited for the time being we're going to leave it so long good luck and keep smiling it was presented to them that they wanted to sign a contract stating that they could only work for the old dominion barn dance and june told them no that they wasn't going to sign the contract and that's when they left and then they went from richmond to knoxville to the midday merry-go-round and that's where they met chet adkins and he started playing guitar with him they took him to springfield missouri and they did a lot of transcriptions and radio shows in springfield and then from springfield they got the offer to come to the grand ole opry to me i just look at the carter family as the first family of country music and that's what the history books say also so i can't think of another country artist that has the the body of work that the carter family had they weren't just from southwestern virginia they were everybody's band and if you mention folks from that era they can still tell you where they were what they were doing and when they first heard the carter family here in central virginia with the carter family with mother mabel even being in richmond from 43 to 48 it's not the length of time it's the amount of reach and they had a deep reach i think their legacy will just continue on [Music] do [Music] so [Music] with [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] i will [Music] my idols were playing a portion of love had all blown away [Music] oh oh he taught me to love him and call me [Music] he's gone and neglected this [Music] [Applause]

Channel: The Carter Family Channel

Views: 2,945

Rating: 4.9333334 out of 5

Keywords: Maybelle Carter & Family - The Henrico Years Documentary, june, the, Mother Maybelle & The Carter Sisters: The Henrico Years

Id: VJaX8IVh0qo

Length: 28min 14sec (1694 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020