Maybelle Carter (1909 to 1978) played guitar and sang in the Carter Family from its first records in 1927 until the group broke up in 1943. She then led the Carter Sisters with her three daughters and toured with Johnny Cash from 1968 on. Her thumb-brush style, known as the Carter scratch, is the first guitar technique most flatpickers learn. The Carter Family entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970 as its first group.
Why Carter matters
Carter turned the guitar from a background instrument into a lead voice. On the Carter Family records she plays the melody on the bass strings and keeps rhythm on the treble strings at the same time. That is one player doing the job of two. Every bluegrass guitarist who plays a melody with bass notes and fills with brushes is playing her idea. Her recording of Wildwood Flower is the first tune many guitar students learn.
Life and career
Carter was born Maybelle Addington on May 10, 1909, near Nickelsville in Scott County, Virginia. She said she began to study guitar at 13. On March 13, 1926, she married Ezra Carter. His brother A.P. Carter formed the Carter Family in 1927 with his wife Sara singing lead and Maybelle on guitar.
On August 1 and 2, 1927, the trio recorded for Victor in Bristol, Tennessee, at the sessions run by Ralph Peer. Victor released their first record on November 4, 1927. Over the next few years the group cut Keep on the Sunny Side (1928), Wildwood Flower (1928), Wabash Cannonball (1929), and Worried Man Blues (1930). In the late 1930s the family broadcast twice a day on border radio station XERA across the river from Del Rio, Texas. The station broadcast at ten times the power allowed for stations in the United States.
The original trio broke up in 1943. Maybelle kept working with her daughters Helen, June, and Anita as the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, and they played the Grand Ole Opry through the 1950s. From 1968 she toured with her son-in-law Johnny Cash. In 1972 she recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on Will the Circle Be Unbroken, where she sang and played guitar on Keep on the Sunny Side and sang and played autoharp on the title song. She died in Nashville on October 23, 1978, at age 69.
Playing style
The Carter scratch is a thumb-brush pattern. The thumb picks the melody on the three bass strings. The fingers brush down across the three treble strings between the melody notes to keep the rhythm. On Wildwood Flower the melody lives in the bass and the brushes fill the beats around it. The result sounds like a lead guitar and a rhythm guitar at once.
Her main guitar was a Gibson L-5 archtop. Collectors long called it a 1928 instrument, though researcher Joe Spann traced its shipping date to January 1930. George Gruhn has called it the most important single guitar in country music. She also played autoharp, and the Autoharp Hall of Fame inducted her in 1992.
Influences and legacy
Carter grew up in Scott County, Virginia, and taught herself from age 13. Her partners were A.P. Carter, who collected the songs, and Sara Carter, who sang lead. Her daughters carried the family act into the 1950s and beyond, and June Carter married Johnny Cash. Her guitar style sits under most of what bluegrass guitarists play today. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs recorded Songs of the Famous Carter Family in 1961. The Grammy Hall of Fame holds three Carter Family records: Can the Circle Be Unbroken (1998), Wildwood Flower (1999), and Keep on the Sunny Side (2006).
Signature tunes and songs
Wildwood Flower Keep on the Sunny Side Will the Circle Be Unbroken Wabash Cannonball Worried Man Blues Black Mountain Rag.
Essential recordings
Wildwood Flower, the Carter Family (Victor, 1928) Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Mother Maybelle Carter (United Artists, 1972)
Awards and honors
Country Music Hall of Fame, the Carter Family (1970) Autoharp Hall of Fame (1992) United States postage stamp, the Carter Family (1993) Grammy Hall of Fame, Can the Circle Be Unbroken (1998) Grammy Hall of Fame, Wildwood Flower (1999) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, the Carter Family (2001) Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Carter Family (2005) Grammy Hall of Fame, Keep on the Sunny Side (2006)
Watch and listen
Carter plays Wildwood Flower live in 1961. Watch her thumb carry the melody while her fingers brush the rhythm.
Carter plays Black Mountain Rag, a fiddle tune, with the same thumb-brush method.
What to learn from Carter
Learn Wildwood Flower from her recording. It is the clearest lesson in the Carter scratch on record. The technique to steal is the thumb-brush itself. Play the melody note with your thumb on the beat, then brush down on the treble strings for the offbeat. Keep the brush light. Once it feels steady, play the same pattern under any song in a jam. Most bluegrass rhythm guitar starts here.
Sources
Carter Family, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum The Carter Family, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Maybelle Carter, Britannica Maybelle Carter, Wikipedia Carter Family, Wikipedia Will the Circle Be Unbroken (album), Wikipedia Gibson L-5, Wikipedia Flatt and Scruggs, Wikipedia
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more early guitarists. Riley Puckett recorded in the same years with a bass-run style of his own. Lester Flatt recorded an album of Carter Family songs with Earl Scruggs. Every rhythm guitarist on this site, from Jimmy Martin to Del McCoury, builds on her thumb-brush pattern.