In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain [BOX SET]

Carter Family

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Bear Family
• ASIN: B00004WH98
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #521,269 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

12CD Box Set Plus Book. Back in the LP era, Bear Family began the task of collecting source materials (78s, pressing parts, transfers, etc.) of all of the Carter Family's original recordings, as well as collecting the photographs and ephemera necessary to make a full and proper tribute. In 2000, this work came to fruition with this epic 12-CD set. In conjunction with its 30th anniversary, the Bear Family label polled 100 critics and musicians, asking them to list their favorite Bear Family records. The Carter Family set was the hands-down winner. And it's just part of their exhaustive documentation of the group. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carter Family Box Set Essential For Fans, August 23, 2000

By	Todd A. Gracyk (Petaluma, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Most Carter Family fans will already own a good portion of the recordings in this massive 12 CD box set, but many rare, essential recordings make this project truly exciting. Plus, this box set contains an invaluable, exquisite book and all the recordings are nicely remastered. The Bear Family label has a phenomenal reputation due to their attention to detail; surely putting this project together has been one their greatest challenges yet.

This box set features all 265 extant Carter Family major label recordings, plus 16 interesting radio transcriptions. This makes for a grand total of 281 sides. Now, 243 of these 281 sides feature unique songs and the remaining 38 are remakes. The 281 recordings are as follows: 133 sides recorded between 1927 and 1934 for Victor, 40 sides recorded in 1935 for ARC (20 of them remakes of Victor sides), 20 sides recorded in 1936 for Decca, 16 sides recorded in 1936 for the Associated Recorded Program Service and issued as radio transcriptions (10 of them remakes of Victor sides and the other 6 remakes of material recorded for Decca the previous day), 40 sides recorded from 1937-1938 for Decca (2 of them remakes of Victor sides), 20 sides recorded in 1940 for ARC/Columbia, and 12 sides recorded in 1941 for Victor.

Of the 281 recordings, 214 have previously been made available on 13 CDs released by Rounder (9 volumes of the series "Their Complete Victor Recordings"), Columbia/Legacy ("Can The Circle Be Unbroken"), MCA ("Country Music Hall Of Fame"), Old Homestead ("1936 Radio Transcripts"), and County/Sony Music Special Products ("Clinch Mountain Treasures"). What are not found on those 13 CDs, and what are mostly only available in this box set, are 23 ARC recordings from 1935 (9 of them remakes) and 44 Decca recordings from 1936-1938 (2 of them remakes).

This box set is filled out with 3 early Victor alternate takes, 4 early ARC alternate takes, a 1963 interview with Sara Carter and Maybelle Carter, 4 home recordings from 1968 featuring Sara Carter and Maybelle Carter, and a 1973 interview with Maybelle Carter.

Then there is the book! It is hardbound and contains 220 pages. In it, there is a hand written introduction by Johnny Cash, biographies and song notes by Charles K. Wolfe, song transcriptions (lyrics) by Phil Wells, and a detailed discography by Tony Russell and Richard Weize. There are dozens upon dozens of photographs of people, places, phonograph records, handbills, and so on; reportedly every known photograph of the original Carter Family is featured. The Bear really outdid themselves with this one.

One frustrating aspect to this box set is that a few song titles in the discography are not identical to those used elsewhere in the book and on the jewel case tray cards.

The sound quality of the earliest Victor recordings is reasonably good here, especially as compared to the Rounder CDs featuring same. There a fair amount of surface noise present here, but I prefer this to the high pitched squeal heard on the Rounder CDs.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Carter Family: A Cornerstone of American Popular Music, November 7, 2000

By	Ron Frankl (Hendersonville, NC) - See all my reviews

The Carter Family has often been called the first family of country music, and no better argument for this claim can be made than this massive 12 CD set. Recorded for a variety of record companies between 1927 and 1941, this set includes all of the studio recordings made by the trio before they went their separate ways. The box set includes a 220 page, hardcover book that includes all known photographs of the Carters, as well as program notes, song lyrics, an essay from noted country music scholar Charles Wolfe, and a discography. For the uninitiated, the Carter Family were from the Clinch Mountain area of Virginia. The group consisted of leader A.P. Carter on backing vocals, wife Sara Dougherty Carter on lead vocals, guitar and autoharp, and Sara's cousin Maybelle Addington Carter on lead guitar and harmony vocals. When the Victor recording company placed adds in Virginia and Tennessee newspapers in the summer of 1927 for musical talent, dozens of local acts appeared and many were recorded. The Carter Family was chosen, as was the soon-to-be legendary Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers. These recording sessions, often called the Bristol (TN) Sessions, are cited by many as the birth of country music as we know it, incorporating old time string band and folk music with such later developments as blues, ragtime and jazz.

Both the Carters and Rodgers went on to sell hundreds of thousands of 78 RPM records in the late twenties. The Carter Family traveled and performed widely, and their careers even survived the Great Depression. After recording dozens of sides for Victor, the Carters moved on to ARC, Decca and Bluebird. All of the music was memorable, and all of it is preserved here. The sound is rough in spots but better than any previous reissues. Only the Victor sides (about half of this compilation) have been reissued in their entirety, so this is the first CD reissue for many of these recordings. The Carter's mid-Thirties work is some of their finest, and its a pleasure to finally have all of these sides reissued.

The Carter Family's music influenced many other musicians in the Thirties and Forties, and they continued to be a force in later decades as well. The folk revival of the Sixties so a particular renewal of interest, and as late as the 1970s Johnny Cash featured Maybelle Carter and her daughters (including Cash's wife, June Carter) in his recordings and stage shows.

The German company, Bear Family Records, has done their usual excellent work in compiling this release. Sure, its expensive, and its a lot of music from a single act, but serious scholars of American music will consider this set essential. The Carter Family's legacy has never seemed greater than it does on this fine set.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Tribute to the Carter, September 5, 2000

By A Customer

There is little to say about the music that folks looking at this set don't already know. It's nice to have all Carter recordings available in a package of this quality. I also believe the remastering is an improvement on the Rounder series and the book has some interesting information and is very good quality. This set does indeed anchor any collection of old time or early country music.