Friends of the Carter Family Fold

Friends of the Carter Family Fold News

("Going to the Carter Fold." Photo:John Maeder)

Dock Boggs, Carl Martin and Carter Family in "Walk of Fame"!

On Saturday, September 20, a special public "Induction Ceremony" will be held at 5:30 pm on the grounds of the Southwest Virginia Museum in Big Stone Gap. The event is intended to mark the dedication of the Southwest VA "Walk of Fame", part of the museum's year-long 60th Anniversary celebration. The walk will honor local Southwest Virginians, both past and present, who have brought honor and appreciation for our local history and culture, and the first inductees include local musicians and singers Dock Boggs, Carl Martin and The Carter Family. "The Walk of Fame" will be located on the grounds of the Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park and free to view by all welcome visitors.

Each honoree will be designated with a tile inscribed with their name and area of discipline (architecture, literature, medicine, music, politics, sports etc.) for which their contribution is known. An accompanying brochure will contain a brief biographical summary.

Everyone is invited to attend and celebrate Southwest Virginians and their accomplishments. For a brief bio of each inductee, go to www.swvamuseum.org. For more information, contact the museum at 276-523-1332.

(Janette Carter, Dale Jett and Sara Carter)
The autoharp that Janette is holding is the second one she ever owned. She bought her first at age 17 but her father, A.P. traded it for chickens. She saved her money and bought this autoharp. The guitar that 17 year old Dale Jett is holding is A.P.'s guitar which Janette gave to Dale for learning to play the guitar---it was not easy for a left-handed boy, but he learned to play the chords upside-down without restringing the guitar.

Sara Carter is holding her first guitar. After Sara's death, her son Joe lent it to Johhny Cash and it was thought that it was lost, but John Carter Cash found the guitar after Johnny's death and returned it to Joe. Keeping the Carter musical legacy intact, Joe gave it to Dale. And so, he has both his grandmother's guitar, and his grandfathers's guitar.

Regional Festival Schedule

Aug. 17: 7pm
BCMA presents Mountain Stage With Carlene Carter
www.theparamountcenter.com

Aug.29-31st: all day/all night!!
Music, dance, theater, and joy!
Clear Creek Music Festival
www.clearcreekfest.org

Aug. 31st: jam at 3
Concert at 6 pm
"Papa" Joe Smiddy Music Festival
Natural Tunnel State park
Dixie Bee-liners and more!
www.coveridge.com

Sept.6: "Mines to Wines" Art and Music Festival at Mountain Rose Winery, Wise VA.
Full day of wine and dine and music fine!
www.mountainrosevineyard.com

Sept. 12-13: 40th Annual Dock Boggs/Kate Peters Sturgill Music Festival.
Concert Fri. evening at 7pm with Beverly Jones McGee and the Big McAttack
Sat. at 11am-10 Mike Seeger, Grascals, Dixie Bee-liners
And more, more.
www.dockboggsfestival.com

Sept 26-28th: Ralph Stanley Museum Mountain Music Festival
Old-time, bluegrass music 10-6 each day
Crafts, food and fun!!
www.ralphstanleymuseum.com

Oct 4-5th: Famous Wise Fall Fling
Bluegrass, food, crafts, games and fire truck rides!!!
www.wisefallfling.com

Oct 17th, 18th, 19th: 34th Annual World Famous Home Craft Days
"THE BIGGEST AND THE BEST"
Fri night concert with Dale Jett
Music, crafts, food, rides, antiques!!
www.homecraftdays.org

Dale Jett at Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame Induction of the Carter Family

June, 2008

In June, Dale, Teresa Jett and Oscar Harris performed and participated in the Carter Family's induction into the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame. The Original Carter Family were among the first group of inductees that included Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Tommy Jarrell and many more great artists.

The Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame exists to showcase and preserve the rich musical heritage of the greater Blue Ridge Mountains area from northern Georgia to Northern Virginia. The Hall of Fame will educate, define and interpret the history of music in the Blue Ridge area and musicians from all genres within the region with exhibits and an annual celebration of Hall of Fame inductees.

The Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, Wilkes Heritage Museum
100 East Main Street
Wilkesboro, NC 28697
Phone (336) 667-3171
email address: directorwhm@wilkes.net

Carter Family's Dale Jett to Serve on Artistic Advisory Board of
Birthplace of Country Music Alliance

March 3, 2008
BRISTOL, VA --- Doyle Lawson wants music fans who make the pilgrimage to the birthplace of country music to have more than a mural or a monument to look at.

"It will happen. I was part of a core group in Nashville more than 20 years ago that was looking to establish a home for bluegrass music," Lawson said. "We had no home, no representation, no office and no hall of fame. We only had a handful of people who believed in what we could do."

The result of that group’s efforts was the International Bluegrass Music Association, Lawson said. It now operates a museum in Owensboro, Ky., offices in Nashville and hosts an annual fanfest-tradeshow in Nashville.

That’s why the Grammy Award-winning Bristol Tennessee resident is one of 17 members serving on an artistic advisory board for the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance’s proposed cultural heritage center project.

The BCMA unveiled the council lineup during a news conference on Tuesday at the Bristol Public Library. The association is trying to raise about $12.5 million to transform a vacant Cumberland Street building into a world-class museum honoring Bristol’s musical legacy The artistic council is a mix of musicians, music industry insiders, record and media executives and representatives of affiliated local organizations.

It includes country music star Patty Loveless, bluegrass music icon Ralph Stanley, Grammy Award winner Tim Stafford, folk musician Mike Seeger, country pioneer Bill Clifton, along with singer Dale Jett and banjo player Roni Stoneman, descendants of Bristol Sessions performers the Carter Family and Stoneman Family.

The council also includes representatives of the Country Music Hall of Fame, syndicated public radio program Mountain Stage, record companies Peer International and Rounder Records and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings – a division of the Smithsonian Institution.

"The support of these 17 people adds further validity to what we’re doing," said Kevin Triplett, chairman of the BCMA’s fundraising efforts. "When people of this quality lend their name and support, it makes other people believers." (Credits: Bristol Herald Courier, David McGee Staff Writer)

Folk Icon Ernest “Pop” Stoneman Inducted Into Country Music Hall of Fame

February 13, 2008
Nashville, TN --- The Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn. has finally recognized the “pioneering” musical contributions of “Pop” Stoneman. For five decades he led his family in song on stages throughout the world and introduced traditional music to millions of people.

“Pop” was an innovator and is credited with introducing the autoharp to traditional music. Maybelle Carter, always an innovator, later took it, gathered it up to her bosom and picked it ala “Carter Scratching” style creating a much more interesting, versatile instrument.

His work predated the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers and it was “Pop” who convinced Ralph Peer to come to Bristol VA/TN, looking for new talent, and where Peer recorded Rodgers and the Carter Family, among others, creating what some call the “Big Bang” creation of the “Country Music” industry.

“Pop” had the first million- seller record in America, The Wreck of the Titanic, that advanced to # 3 on the Billboard charts, another first for any “Hillbilly” record and an eye-opener for big-time record company executives who quickly jumped on the “Hillbilly” bandwagon. Rodgers and the Carter Family demonstrated that “Pop’s” success was not a fluke and more likely led to the explosion of country music records onto the market of a willing and eager audience. (Credits: Nashville Tennessean, B.M.I news release, Cybergrass)

“Mother” Maybelle’s Guitar and Monroe Mandolin Once Again in Danger of Being Sold!!

January 6, 2008
Nashville, TN --- Traditional music lovers and guitar connoisseurs breathed a collective sigh of relief in 2004 when Murfreesboro businessman/philanthropist, Bob McLean came up with the cash to purchase Maybelle’s 1928, Loar designed, L-5 Gibson guitar for a reputed $585,000. He then permanently loaned it to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The guitar had certainly come a long way from its purchase in 1929 by Maybelle’s husband, Eck, for $285. It had seen the rise of the Carter Family to international musical status and witnessed the birth and growth of the modern country music business.

But, unfortunately, the story does not have a happy ending for it turns out that McLean apparently got the money to purchase the guitar, a Bill Monroe mandolin, two guitars owned by Johnny Cash and $2.2 million dollars worth of pianos donated to Middle Tennessee State University, by swindling investors in a “phony” investment scheme. Having spent most of the money on the instruments and other luxuries for himself, when pressed, Mc Lean committed suicide in a Hendersonville field. Now the Bankruptcy Court creditors are pressing the Country Music Hall of Fame to either purchase or return the instruments so that they might be sold to repay some of the investors who were swindled by McLean. Negotiations are continuing, but a Hall of Fame spokesperson has already stated there is no way that the organization can pay back such large sums of money.

Bankruptcy trustee executor, Bob Waldschmidt said that the L-5 and other instruments belong to creditors and not to the Hall of Fame.

Now, it seems that Waldschmidt has gotten one step closer to claiming the instruments and the case has been brought before the Tennessee Federal Court to determine the settlement.

Hall of Fame spokesperson Liz Thiels stated that selling the instruments is out of the question and called the possible exit of these “treasures” from the Museum into the hands of private collectors, “most distressing”. (Credits: Nashville Tennessean and Kingsport Times News)

(Editorial: Maybe some of the artists and record executives who have made a fortune from the “industry” built on the Carter Family musical foundation will show some conscience and step- up to prevent such a great loss to our collective American musical heritage.)