Maybelle Carter facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Maybelle Carter
in the 1960s
Background information
Birth name	Maybelle Addington
Born	(1909-05-10)May 10, 1909 Nickelsville, Virginia, US
Died	October 23, 1978(1978-10-23) (aged 69) Hendersonville, Tennessee, US
Genres	Country Folk, Gospel, Americana
Instruments	Guitar "1928 Gibson L-5", Gibson L-1 banjo, autoharp
Years active	1927–1978

"Mother" Maybelle Carter (born Maybelle Addington; May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American country musician. She was famous for her unique guitar playing style called the "Carter scratch." Maybelle was a key member of the original Carter Family band from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. She was also part of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group.

Meet Maybelle Carter: Her Life Story

Maybelle Addington was born on May 10, 1909, in Nickelsville, Virginia. Her parents were Margaret Elizabeth and Hugh Jackson Addington. On March 13, 1926, Maybelle married Ezra Carter. They had three daughters: Helen, June, and Anita.

The Original Carter Family Band

In 1927, Maybelle joined the original Carter Family band. Her brother-in-law A. P. Carter formed the group. His wife, Sara Carter, who was also Maybelle's cousin, was the third member. The Carter Family was one of the first country music groups to become famous.

Maybelle played the autoharp, banjo, and guitar for the group. She created a special sound with her amazing guitar playing. This style is known as the "Carter scratch." She used her thumb to play the melody on the lower strings. At the same time, she used her index finger to strum the rhythm. This new way of playing helped change the guitar's role in music. It went from being just a rhythm instrument to a lead instrument.

"Mother Maybelle": A Country Music Legend

By the 1950s, Maybelle was known as "Mother Maybelle." She was seen as a very important person in country music. Even though she was only in her forties, she was like a mother figure to many.

From the 1940s to the 1960s, Maybelle and her daughters toured as "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle." After A. P. Carter passed away in 1960, the group changed its name back to "The Carter Family." They often toured with Johnny Cash, who later married Maybelle's daughter June. The group was a regular act on The Johnny Cash Show from 1969 to 1971. Maybelle also reunited with Sara Carter in the 1960s. They performed together during the folk music craze.

Maybelle Carter also released her own music in the 1960s and 1970s. Her last album, released in 1973, was a hit on the Billboard country charts. She also appeared on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's famous 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

Maybelle Carter passed away in 1978. She was buried next to her husband, Ezra, in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville.

Carter Family Tree

Maybelle's Musical Talents

Maybelle Carter played many string instruments. Her main instruments for performing were the guitar, autoharp, guitaro, and banjo.

Her Guitar Playing Style

Maybelle started learning guitar at age 13. She was a pioneer in music, being one of the first female guitarists to gain national fame. She also helped make the guitar a lead instrument in country music.

Her most famous style is called "the Carter Scratch" or "thumb-lead style." In this technique, she played the melody on the guitar's three bass strings. At the same time, she strummed the three treble strings for rhythm. She used both thumb and finger picks.

Maybelle also used other styles. One involved picking a melody on the treble strings while brushing the bass strings with her thumb. She might have learned this from African American musician Lesley Riddle. Another style was fast flatpicking, common in country-blues. She even used a Hawaiian-influenced slide technique on some early recordings. If other musicians played lead, Maybelle would strum chords to support them.

Her signature guitar song was "Wildwood Flower," which she recorded many times. "The Cannon Ball" shows her fingerpicking style. "Coal Miner's Blues" is a great example of her flat-picking.

Mastering the Autoharp

The autoharp was not very well known in early country music. Maybelle's cousin Sara Carter often played it for rhythm. However, Maybelle is widely credited with making the autoharp popular in country music today. The autoharp was actually Maybelle's first instrument. She started playing it when she was only four years old. She began focusing on it seriously around 1940.

Traditionally, the autoharp was strummed for rhythm. Maybelle developed a new "pinch and pluck" technique. This allowed her to play melodic lead notes on the instrument. Her style also added fill-in rhythms, similar to her guitar technique. She would often press chord bars between notes. This created a unique "slurring" sound, like a guitar hammer-on.

Maybelle found it hard to get the autoharp close enough to the microphone. She started holding the instrument upside down across her chest. She played along the end nearest the tuning pegs. This gave her more space for her complex playing. It also produced a sweeter sound. It is said that autoharps were later made differently to fit her popular playing style.

Maybelle taught workshops on autoharp playing at folk festivals. She is credited with the first finger-picked autoharp solo on a commercial recording. This was for the song "Fair and Tender Ladies" around 1950. She often featured the autoharp in her solo work. Her album Queen of the Autoharp showcased many of her autoharp solos.

Maybelle also played autoharp for other artists. She recorded with Johnnie & Jack and the Wilburn Brothers. She also played on Carl Smith's gospel album and Flatt & Scruggs' "Songs of the Famous Carter Family."

Maybelle's Singing Voice

Mother Maybelle Carter sang on many records. She sang with the Original Carter Family, with her daughters, and on her own solo albums. She also sang with other artists.

Singing with the Original Carter Family

The original group was sometimes called "Original Carter Family" to avoid confusion with other groups. Maybelle sang with this group from about 1926 until 1943. She performed on radio shows and made many recordings.

At first, her singing was mostly harmony. But she gradually took on a bigger role. She often sang duets with Sara Carter. In 1937, they recorded "Hello Stranger," which featured both their voices equally. Maybelle also sang opening parts for songs like "I'll Never Forsake You." On their last recordings, her voice was sometimes more prominent than Sara's.

Singing with Her Daughters

After A. P. Carter passed away in 1960, the group with Maybelle and her daughters became "The Carter Family." They toured, did radio and TV shows, and made many recordings. Their first recordings for RCA Victor were in 1949. Maybelle sang lead on several of these songs, like "My Darling's Home at Last."

By the early 1950s, the group moved to Columbia Records. Maybelle often sang a verse in a song, with her daughters singing others. "Fair and Tender Ladies" and "Foggy Mountain Top" were popular songs from this time.

In the 1960s, the group had successful albums on Columbia. Maybelle sang a lot of harmony on these recordings. She also sang whole songs or verses sometimes. Examples include "Homestead on the Farm" and "Will the Circle be Unbroken."

Her Solo Singing Career

Maybelle's first solo album, "Mother Maybelle Carter," was recorded in 1959. Her daughters Helen and Anita sang backup. The album was later re-released as "Queen of the Autoharp." Maybelle sang songs like "Sweeter than the Flowers" and "My Native Home."

In the 1960s, she released more solo albums on Mercury Records. Songs like "Faded Coat of Blue" and "Nobody's Darling on Earth" featured her vocals. She even sang "Foggy Mountain Top" with her own banjo playing.

In the late 1960s, Maybelle released another solo album, "Living Legend," on Columbia. One song, "I Told them What You were Fighting For," was a small hit.

Singing with Other Artists

Maybelle often sang or played as a guest on other artists' recordings. She was sometimes not credited. Her most famous collaboration was on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's album "Will the Circle be Unbroken" in the early 1970s. She sang lead and played on "Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes" and "Wildwood Flower." She also sang the first verse of the title track. This album was a huge success, earning her a Grammy nomination and a gold record.

In 1973, Maybelle and Johnny Cash released a top 40 song called "Pick the Wildwood Flower." It featured her guitar playing and a short conversation. The other side of the single, "Diamonds in the Rough," was a duet with Johnny Cash.

Maybelle's Songwriting

Maybelle Carter helped write, arrange, and collect many songs throughout her career. She often arranged songs for recording before a session.

Maybelle said that most songs for the Original Carter Family were collected or written by A. P. Carter. However, she and Sara Carter often helped him. They were usually not credited on the records. For example, the classic song "You Are My Flower" is credited to A. P. Carter. But Maybelle explained that she and Sara found some words from a poem. They then "picked out and put together" the song's verses. Maybelle then wrote the original music for the lyrics.

Maybelle felt that writing music was her strength, but writing lyrics was not. In the early days of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group, she would sometimes buy lyrics from other writers. Then she would write the music and copyright the song in her name.

Some songs Maybelle helped create include "Fair and Tender Ladies," "Kneeling Drunkard's Plea," and "Letter from Home." Her song "In the Highways" was featured in the movie soundtrack for "O Brother Where Art Thou." "Jukebox Blues," which she co-wrote with her daughter Helen, was used in the movie "Walk the Line."

Awards and Recognition

Even though the Original Carter Family sold millions of records, Maybelle Carter did not receive many awards early in her career. Her name was even misspelled on her own album covers sometimes!

Her first major award came in 1966. She was surprised with the Music City News Award, which called her the "Mother of Country Music." She cried, saying it was her first award after 39 years in music.

In 1970, Maybelle Carter was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame with the Original Carter Family. She and Sara Carter were the first female performers to be inducted.

She was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1972 for her work on the album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." In 1973, The Carter Family (Maybelle, Helen, June, and Anita) won "Favorite Country Group" at the American Music Awards. The next year, Maybelle received the first Tex Ritter Award.

In 1992, Carter was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame. In 1993, her image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family. She was ranked No. 8 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music in 2002.

Maybelle Carter has been played by actresses in movies and TV shows. Sandra Ellis Lafferty played her in the 2005 film Walk the Line. Frances Conroy played her in the 2013 TV movie "Ring of Fire."

Her granddaughter Carlene Carter wrote the 1990 song "Me and the Wildwood Rose" about her. Johnny Cash's song "Tears in the Holston River" was about her death. Many other tribute songs have been written about Maybelle Carter.

The Original Carter Family, including Maybelle, was inducted into the International Bluegrass Association's Hall of Honor in 2001. They also received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2005.

In 2007, Maybelle was honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "Virginia Women in History" for her musical career. In 2010, Lipscomb University in Nashville named a stage after her.

Several historic places related to the Carter Family, including the Maybelle and Ezra Carter House, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Images for kids

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  Carter's Gibson guitar, with a photo of Carter at the Country Music Hall of Fame