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Thursday May 17th, 2001
Mother Maybelle's L-5 moves into a 'mansion'
Led by Othar Turner's Fife and Drum Band this morning, a limousine procession of Country Music Hall of Fame members carried the last artifact to go into the new Country Music Hall of Fame museum, Mother Maybelle Carter's Gibson L-5 guitar. They traveled only ten blocks from the original Music Row location to the grand new facility at 5th Avenue South and Demonbreun Street in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.
In ceremonies at the new museum, country star and master instrumentalist Marty Stuart held Mother Maybelle's Gibson aloft and said, "This guitar is the heart of country music. Inside this guitar lives country music." Stuart, playing Mother Maybelle's Gibson,
then ended the inaugural ceremonies with a song first recorded and popularized by the Carter Family, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
The history of that guitar and country music began on another short trip July 31, 1927. A.P. "Doc" Carter drove his model A Ford loaded with his wife Sara, his sister-in-law Maybelle (who was seven months pregnant at the time), and Sara's two children and various musical instruments 30 miles from mountainous Maces Spring, Virginia, to Bristol, Tennessee. They were to record for Victor talent scout Ralph Peer, who was conducting a 10-day session in a leased store front on State Street. The Carter session had been pre-arranged between A.P. and Peer through the assistance of the local Victrola merchant. The Carter Family cut six sides on August 1-2, including "The Storms are on the Ocean" and "Single Girl, Married Girl", an event often marked as the beginning of country music as a popular, commercial musical style.
From 1927-1943 the Carters recorded some 350 songs for the Victor, ARC (later to become Columbia Records), and Decca labels. Today many of these songs remain staples of country and folk music, including "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes," "My Clinch Mountain Home," "Worried Man Blues," "Wabash Cannonball," and the classic "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
In the Carter Family, A.P. was the manager and collector of folk songs to record, as well as occasionally singing harmony. Sara sang the strong lead vocals and played autoharp. Maybelle sang alto harmony and played the Gibson L-5.. "Mother Maybelle" (b. Maybelle Addington, May 10, 1909; d. October 23, 1978) as she became known when the folk revival discovered her in the '60s, had a distinct style of guitar playing, picking out the melody on the bass strings while maintaining the rhythm with chords on the treble strings.
Music critic David Vinopal, All Music Guide, calls The Carter Family "the most influential group in country music history. They switched the emphasis from hillbilly instrumentals to vocals, made scores of their songs part of the standard country music canon, and made a style of guitar-playing, "Carter-picking," the dominant technique for decades."
The Carter Family sound could be heard blanketing the United States on new radio stations that proliferated in that era as well as super-powered stations across the Texas border in Mexico, stations that would later prove instrumental to the growth of rock 'n' roll.. Then family duties called. Sara (who had divorced A.P. and married his cousin) retired to California. A.P. went back to Maces Spring and started a country store. Mother Maybelle, however, kept going strong with her three daughters, Helen, June (now Mrs. Johnny Cash) and Anita.
In 1970, The Carter Family became the first group to be elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Mother Maybelle's Gibson L-5 has now moved into a veritable "mansion",more than 70 years and countless miles from its country roots.
Just a click away. . . Country Music Hall of Fame
Mother Maybelle Carter and The Carter Family
Gibson L-5Go here for an exclusive photo gallery of the museum's inaugural event.
Riders In The Sky walk down the red carpet towards the stage
for today's ceremonies.
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