Sara played the autoharp on her lap, so she and Maybelle sat, while A.P. hovered near the microphone. Maybelle played guitar and all three sang, but Sara was singing the lead everytime! This is wonderful music, and I'm glad people are still listening to them!
Thanks to The Carter Family and the concept of the Bristol recordings. Many American old time folk gospel songs were recorded . If not for A.P Crater his wife Sera & cousin Maybelle . These gems would have been lost forever !
My mother, who has passed, used to play this song and Rosewood Casket for us on the autoharp. I always wondered where the original recordings came from. She passed her love of music, including playing the guitar, piano and autoharp to all 10 kids. Hard not to weep when I hear them.
What you are hearing is the fulcrum point... the mother-root of all that country music would ever become, or aspire to be. This is the actual recording that The Carter Family made with their producer Ralph Peer in Bristol in 1927. The first of six songs to be recorded that day. God bless them for what they did there... They are owed everything .
The best music ever. I am Australian but my grand-mother on my Dad's side was born and raised in America; Southern...I grew up playing and singing all the American folk and bluegrass and The Carter Family was the main. They truly are the history of American's south.
I'm glad you enjoyed the song! On thsi song, Sara is singing. So is A.P. Maybelle is just playing on the guitar, she was a bit shy.. But later Maybelle started to join in, and sing:-)
Denny, calling the Carter Family " the beginning of Country" is an accurate description that they have long held. But I'm beginning to believe that description actually shortchanges the Carters. Because when the study of American music origins is undertaken, Country, Folk, Rock, Pop, Bluegrass, etc, you always end up back at the Carters.
Somehow the Carters are the focal point between the past and today, and to call their influence on our music, "profound" is an understatement!
I can't believe that nobody yet has said that "American Epic" has brought them here! This is a documentary series which has been recently appearing on PBS and the story of how this song was recorded was one of the highlights of the first episode. Great song.
It was certainly common for AP, who would wander in and out, stop singing, start again, and during live performances, walk off stage and out the door for a breather!
Yes, it was somewhat amateurish and unpolished, but these people had no formal training...what you hear is what was handed down to them across generations. Authentic music with roots reaching down hundreds of years.
My heart is sad and I'm in sorrow,
for the only one I love,
when shall I see him, oh, no never,
'till I meet him in heaven above.
CHORUS
Oh, bury me under the weeping willow,
yes, under the weeping willow tree.
So he may know where I am sleeping,
and perhaps he will weep over me.
They told me that he did not love me,
I could not believe it was true,
until an angel softly whispered,
"He has proven untrue to you."
