Songs of the Carter Family

Jody Stecher

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 26, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 26, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Appleseed Records
• ASIN: B00004WMYD
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #220,903 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Carter Family were the most enigmatic performers in the early days of the country music industry. Over the years people tended to ignore the mystery in their music and concentrated instead on the folksy charm of "Wildwood Flower" or the piety of "Keep on the Sunny Side." But on Songs of the Carter Family Kate Brislin and Jody Stecher mostly eschew the familiar songs in favor of lesser-known but equally powerful tunes. And on songs such as "Dark and Stormy Weather," with its "wrong" harmonies that sound so right, or "Away out on the Old Saint Sabbath," with its haunting, ambiguous lyrics, the pair revels in the wild, barely civilized side of the Carters. Stecher and Brislin are two of the finest duet singers to emerge from the old-time music revival of the 1960s, and their sweet mountain harmonies and beautifully understated guitar picking are a fitting tribute to Sara, Maybelle, and A.P. Carter, the greatest old-time singers of them all. --Michael Simmons

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars songs and performances to stop the heart, November 10, 2000

By	Jerome Clark (Canby, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Like James Talley's brilliant collection of Woody Guthrie songs, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin's Songs of the Carter Family is no collection of "covers." You can have heard the Carters most of your life, as I have, and still be awed and moved by the masterly treatment this veteran husband-and-wife team gives material associated with A.P., Sara, and Maybelle. Still, Stecher and Brislin wisely focus on the more obscure stuff. They choose it well, starting with the underdeservedly neglected "Away Out on the Old Saint Sabbath" -- one of those romantic, surrealistic Western songs in the vein of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Away Out on the Mountain," set in a frontier landscape of dreams. With California folk singer Larry Hanks, Stecher and Brislin turn their gorgeous neo-Appalachian harmonies to a stunning meditation on death and resurrection, "Bye and Bye," to heartbreaking, even eerie, effect. "Meet Me in the Moonlight" and the odd, archaic-sounding "Dark and Stormy Weather" grab the heart and don't let go. With one terrific song and magnificent performance after another, Songs of the Carter Family is surely one of the 10 best folk albums of 2000 and perhaps the finest Carter tribute ever.