Carter Family Discography and Biography

The most influential group in country music history, the Carter Family 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. Along with Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family Were among the first country music stars. Comprised of a gaunt, shy gospel quartet member named Alvin P. Carter and two reserved country girls -- his wife, Sara, and their sister-in-law, Maybelle -- the Carter Family sang a pure, simple harmony that influenced not only the numerous other family groups of the '30s and the '40s, but folk, bluegrass, and rock musicians like Woody Guthrie, Bill Monroe, the Kingston Trio, Doc Watson, Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris, to mention just a few.

It's unlikely that bluegrass music would have existed without the Carter Family. A.P., the family patriarch, collected British/Appalachian folk songs and, in arranging these for recording, enhanced the pure beauty of these "facts-of-life tunes" and at the same time saved them for future generations.

1960 All Time Favorites Acme

1962  Together Again RCA Victor

1963 Anita Carter Sings Folk Songs Old and New Mercury

1963 The Carter Family [Decca] Decca

1964 Keep on the Sunny Side [CBS] CBS

1965 More Favorites by the Carter Family Decca

1973 Mother Maybelle Carter Columbia

1976 Country's First Family Columbia

2000 Family Album Longhorn

2003 Sunshine in the Shadows Recall

Pickin' and Singin' Together