518: Carter Family records “Can The Circle Be Unbroken”
They were the first family of country music. Between 1927 to 1943 Sara, “A.P”, and Maybelle Carter would write, record and perform roots music which would have a profound and lasting impact on the genres of bluegrass, country and folk. To this day, their legacy continues.
Their bio from the Country Music Hall of Fame outlines their accomplishments: “The Carters essentially invented the kind of harmony singing used for years in the music; Maybelle crafted the so-called “Carter lick” on the guitar and watched it become the best-known picking style in the genre; the group popularized dozens of songs that became country standards; they served as a platform for the two most creative and talented women in the music, Sara and her cousin Maybelle; they produced an amazing number of hit records during their recording days, from 1927 to 1941; and they explored a wide variety of song genres, from blues to gospel, from old ballads to nineteenth-century parlor songs; and in A. P. they had one of the greatest creative song doctors in country music history. In spite of these achievements, however, the Carters never had the kind of spectacular financial success like that of Jimmie Rodgers or Gene Autry. They never really “crossed over” to the huge popular audiences of network radio,nHollywood films, and big-time vaudeville. Time and again they kept returning to their beloved Clinch Valley, disgusted or puzzled by the show business world.”
It was an old hymn written by Charles Gabriel and Ada Habersoln called “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” that A.P. Carter turned to in 1935. Questioning his own faith in the context of his souring relationship with his wife, he worked in some of his own new lyrics for the song “Can The Circle Be Unbroken.”