03/16/2026
The Carter Family
The Carter Family—Sara, Maybelle, and A. P. Carter—popularized numerous songs that became country standards and served as a platform for two of the most creative and talented women in early country music, Sara Carter and her cousin Maybelle Carter. Maybelle developed the “Carter scratch” on the guitar and watched it become one of the genre’s best-known picking styles. Sara had a haunting, deep and distinctive singing voice. In A. P. Carter, the act had one of the greatest song collectors in country music history.
In late July 1927, the trio traveled to Bristol, Tennessee, to make their first records for Victor producer Ralph Peer. On August 1 and 2, 1927, the Carter Family recorded a total of six selections, including “Single Girl, Married Girl,” “The Wandering Boy,” and “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow.”
Over the next fourteen years, the group recorded more than three hundred songs for RCA Victor and subsequent firms such as the American Record Corporation and Decca. Sara and Maybelle shouldered most of the singing and playing. With the help of Black musician Lesley "Esley" Riddle, A.P. assumed most of the responsibility for finding and arranging songs and booking performances.
The Carter Family not only influenced many artists after them, but they also remained at the forefront of country music during its first two decades as a commercial art form. They were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970.
Read more: https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/carter-family
