There are certain artists and groups that are essentially the essence and dna of everything that comes after it. What Louis Armstrong is to jazz, and Bessie Smith is to the blues, the Carter Family is to country and western. There’s simply nothing that precedes it. This 6 disc, 125 song collection is ground zero for everyone from Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash…well, you get the idea. And, not only did they give us country, but folk, bluegrass, southern gospel and even pop owe a tip of the hat to AP/voc, Sara/voc-autoharp and Maybelle/voc-g Carter.
I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that you’ve heard many, if not most of these songs before, but never in their original home spun incarnations. The stark and plaintive takes of “Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow” is riveting, and the religious tunes such as “God Gave Noah The Rainbow Sign” or “River of Jordan” are right out of the one room church building. The vocal harmonies that launched a thousand bluegrass ships such as Bill Monroe are heard on “Lonesome Valley” and “When The Rosses Bloom In Dixieland”. OF course, there are tons of “hits”, but what constitutes that is up for grabs. Still, “Little Darling pal of Mine”, “Worried Man Blues” and “Lonesome Valley” fit into almost any category, while “Keep On The Sunny Side” is a spiritual gem.
Obviously, the sound quality of these early dates is a bit rough, but by the time you get to the early 1930s, “Wabash Cannonball” and “Hello Central, Give Me Heaven”, you feel you’re right on the back porch with them. A slice of Americana.