Customer Reviews

Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle With Chet Atkins

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What we have here is a series of tapes from radio shows that the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle recorded with guitarist Chet Atkins in 1950 in Nashville. The emcee is Joe Slattery while June Carter introduces the songs. There are three fiddle solos included along with eight Atkins guitar solos. Thirty-nine cuts are included, a gracious plenty for any CD so if you are a Carter family fan, you get your money's worth.

The vocals consist of duets, trios, quartets, solos, etc. There's a pretty mixed bag of selections. When I listened to the CD it occurred to me that this group had to know the words and music to literally hundreds of songs. Two that I find way past the television show "Heehaw" are "You Made Toothpicks Of The Timber Of My Heart" and "My Little Pup with the Patent Leather Nose." (Nobody ever said the words to country music were subtle.) Anita Carter sings a beautiful rendition of a song she was to record soon after she sang it here, "There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight." The group sings two traditional gospel songs, "In The Shadow of the Cross" and "I Am A Pilgrim" as well as one they wrote themselves, "The Day of Wrath."

The three best songs on this CD for me are the ones that feature Maybelle Carter. Far more talented than any of her daughters, she should have been singing much more instead of standing in the wings letting her children get all the air play. Her songs are "When I'm Gone" (the only time that she plays the guitar, a sound that is recognizable instantly), "Little Darling, Pal Of Mine," (an A. P. Carter song) and "I Still Do."

This CD is a valuable edition to the later Carter Family recordings (Maybelle and her daughters), but there are many other LP's that should be made available on CD, particularly the two album LP that Maybelle recorded near the end of her life. It's a keeper.

This is a nice collection of songs and some picking'. It appears to be edited from a radio show from 1949. June Carter does the hosting job and her sisters and Mother all get a chance to sing. One of the things that make this a worthy album to have is there are many songs that I've haven't heard of before. The album has near excellent sound. Any fan of the Carters, Chet Atkins (he sings on a few) blue grass and/or the county sound of the 40s, 50's will find this a nice addition to their collection. There are 3 difference albums out that I know of and all are excellent.

I heard some Carter Sisters & Chet Atkins broadcasts from the early 40s being replayed on WKCR and had to find these recordings for myself. Sure, they're a little hokey, they're lyrically formulaic at times, but they're full of tremendous life. I'm not sure if I've ever heard anything so slickly virtuosic sound so fun. It's real, classic American music coming from some curious characters.

These are basically re-runs of old radio shows and good from that standpoint. Chet Atkins was great as usual.