Rating: 
Summary: Well worth the read
Review: One rainy day while sipping Starbucks and staying out of the weather, I randomly strolled over to the music section at Barnes and Noble and began thumbing thru "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone." My parents, having gone thru the Depression, often spoke of the Carter family and their original music in tones normally reserved for for our owned departed family members and I was interested to have found a book about the group. Two hours later, I had a much better understanding as to why this family had such an impact on my own and the nation. Not only is this book informative and interesting, but give great credit to the author who writes brilliantly. His tone and tales glide you thru the chapters and I felt compelled to read on and on. My biggest disappointment is that I wasn't aware of the book sooner, and that I personnaly never heard the Carters. Read this book if you want a greater understanding of the Depression Era and the workings of the early radio and record business.
Rating: 
Summary: Rags to Riches Chronicle of First Family of Country
Review: Seamless tracing out of these people out of the hills of Virginia who till the end, didn't see themselves as any different from the rest, other than they liked to play and sing music, and people liked to listen.For one such as I who never knew much about those behind the likes of June and Johnny, this was revealing. Strong characters of A.P. and Sarah and Eck and Maybelle, et al, form the nucleus of this formidiable foundational country/folk. The ties with the likes of Atkins and Hank Williams and Elvis and Nitty Gritty, etc. are documented in such a unasuming and relaxed way that it seems as though you're there in their warm hospitality which they showed to all who came to Clinch Mountain. The reader will surely take away fond stories, such as: Maybelle's panic to find instrument for June to play as approach Texas radio gig, writing chord changes on autoharp, June recalling Mom's admonition "You will learn to play the autoharp this week;" or Cowboy Slim borrowing Maybelle's guitar, only to lose it in a poker game; to dreaded Al Gore Sr.'s singing. Appreciated spiritualness of the Carter's. Interesting point Zwonitzer makes on page 311: "Sam Phillip's boys--Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash--were raised on gospel and country music. .... But their hit songs were the yearnings of the flesh. In fact, by the mid-fifties, everybody seemed to be sings about the scratching the big itch, and Maybelle's more indirect and innocent songs of woodland cottages and myrtle, dewy roses and heavenly light, were starting to feel a little dusty." Author is real wordsmith. Reading this book is like putting on that ole pair of bluejeans that feels so good and comfortable. Fine example of written documentary of seminal musical group to this country's rich musical lore.
Rating:
Summary: A Story Long Overdue!
Review: The authors produced an enlightening chronicle of the remarkable lives of a unique American musical group. Many facts were included that have never been published before. Thank goodness the authors started the project several years go when many first-hand accounts could be included. Anyone who admires this fabled family should have this book on their bookshelves. Real Carter Family fans will probably wish to read the book more than once to fully digest its contents. Thanks Mark and Charles!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Though Some Reservations
Review: The Carter Family were, with Jimmie Rodgers, the first stars of country music as well as the most important country musical group of alltime. They deserve a great book and this one is very good but I do have problems with it. First and foremost is the fact that the author is clearly not particularly a fan of country music, seeing them more of a folk act. At one point he even denies their music is hillbilly!!! The Carter Family INVENTED hillbilly music!!! Theirs was hillbilly music at it's purest, honest, simple, raw, and without pretentions. It spoke directly to the country people thoroughout the south, all of whom rightly identified it as "hillbilly" at the time. Zwonitzer is clearly a snob; some of his most brutal assessments are directed at the country comics, ludricously claiming at one point nobody enjoyed them and that fans went out en masse for smokes whenever someone like Grandpa Jones (not just a comic Mr. Zwonitzer but a fine bluegrass singer and musician) came on the stage in package shows. Worse is his downright sexist comment about Minnie Pearl, while noting at one point June had created a comic stage character Aunt Polly similiar to Minnie but that June was "a hell of a lot better looking" than Ms. Pearl. Earth to Mr. Zwonitzer, Minnie Pearl was a deliberate spinsterish stage character, the lady was not trying to be Rita Hayworth! The book should have been great because he had two particularly fascinating characters in A. P. and Sara Carter. A. P. was an uneducated man with a dream who thoroughly understood the country people. The author writes of his getting them into the music industry as something of a fluke but A.P. clearly was a genius spotting talent not only in his wife but his sister-in-law Maybelle who unquestionably would have never have had a professional career with him. His "song scouting", finding old songs among the rural people makes him one of the foremost musicologists of the 20th century although Mr. Zwonitzer presents it somewhat as Carter being too lazy to write songs himself! The thing I really like about this book is its rightly stating the importance of Sara Carter to the success of the Carter Family. Sara appears to be the least show business-struck entertainer ever, completely disinterested in it other than as a paycheck. Her haunting lead vocals on the overwhelming bulk of the Carter Family output give no hint of her lack of interest. Many people think Maybelle was the lead singer no doubt due in part to her long career with a second generation of "The Carter Family" with her daughters and as part of the Johnny Cash show (CMTV recently ranked Maybelle in the top ten among the most important women in country music history while astonishingly Sara did not place in the top 40!!) Maybelle was an brillant musician though, possibly the most influential female musican in American music. A.P. and Sara's marriage and breakup is fascinating to read about and Sara's affair that led to a new husband for her is practically right out of an Erskine Caldwell novel. The one person who is something of a villain here is Maybelle's husband although it's presented in gentle terms here perhaps not to offend Johnny Cash and June Carter. Maybelle's husband belittled the group's initial outings as professional musicians but once the money came in he ran through it like water and after Sara walked away from the act he basically stole the Carter Family franchise right from under A.P.'s feet, packaging Maybelle with their daughters as "The Carter Sisters" and not long after, The Carter Family. The author admits some considered him "mean-spirited" but does not really elaborate although the evidence seems strong. After spending a fair amount of space on the second generation of the Carter Family and their career in the 1950's through the 1970's, the book abruptly ends with the deaths of Maybelle and Sara at the end of the decade. Again, the author's unfamiliarity with country music raises it's head concerning the second Carter Family; he writes of their stage success as some sort of phenomeon not supported by hit records yet there were many big name country stars in the 1940's and 1950's who were known for their stage performances and not their limited record success. The Carter Sisters were genuinely popular (Anita Carter has long been widely regarded as one of the greatest country female singers despite never having real chart success on her own) and their singing was absolutely wonderful. They deserve a boxed CD set of their own. Despite some of my comments, I did enjoy this book. I just wish the author enjoyed country music a little more!
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Though Some Reservations
Review: The Carter Family were, with Jimmie Rodgers, the first stars of country music as well as the most important country musical group of alltime. They deserve a great book and this one is very good but I do have problems with it. First and foremost is the fact that the author is clearly not particularly a fan of country music, seeing them more of a folk act. At one point he even denies their music is hillbilly!!! The Carter Family INVENTED hillbilly music!!! Theirs was hillbilly music at it's purest, honest, simple, raw, and without pretentions. It spoke directly to the country people thoroughout the south, all of whom rightly identified it as "hillbilly" at the time. Zwonitzer is clearly a snob; some of his most brutal assessments are directed at the country comics, ludricously claiming at one point nobody enjoyed them and that fans went out en masse for smokes whenever someone like Grandpa Jones (not just a comic Mr. Zwonitzer but a fine bluegrass singer and musician) came on the stage in package shows. Worse is his downright sexist comment about Minnie Pearl, while noting at one point June had created a comic stage character Aunt Polly similiar to Minnie but that June was "a hell of a lot better looking" than Ms. Pearl. Earth to Mr. Zwonitzer, Minnie Pearl was a deliberate spinsterish stage character, the lady was not trying to be Rita Hayworth! The book should have been great because he had two particularly fascinating characters in A. P. and Sara Carter. A. P. was an uneducated man with a dream who thoroughly understood the country people. The author writes of his getting them into the music industry as something of a fluke but A.P. clearly was a genius spotting talent not only in his wife but his sister-in-law Maybelle who unquestionably would have never have had a professional career with him. His "song scouting", finding old songs among the rural people makes him one of the foremost musicologists of the 20th century although Mr. Zwonitzer presents it somewhat as Carter being too lazy to write songs himself! The thing I really like about this book is its rightly stating the importance of Sara Carter to the success of the Carter Family. Sara appears to be the least show business-struck entertainer ever, completely disinterested in it other than as a paycheck. Her haunting lead vocals on the overwhelming bulk of the Carter Family output give no hint of her lack of interest. Many people think Maybelle was the lead singer no doubt due in part to her long career with a second generation of "The Carter Family" with her daughters and as part of the Johnny Cash show (CMTV recently ranked Maybelle in the top ten among the most important women in country music history while astonishingly Sara did not place in the top 40!!) Maybelle was an brillant musician though, possibly the most influential female musican in American music. A.P. and Sara's marriage and breakup is fascinating to read about and Sara's affair that led to a new husband for her is practically right out of an Erskine Caldwell novel. The one person who is something of a villain here is Maybelle's husband although it's presented in gentle terms here perhaps not to offend Johnny Cash and June Carter. Maybelle's husband belittled the group's initial outings as professional musicians but once the money came in he ran through it like water and after Sara walked away from the act he basically stole the Carter Family franchise right from under A.P.'s feet, packaging Maybelle with their daughters as "The Carter Sisters" and not long after, The Carter Family. The author admits some considered him "mean-spirited" but does not really elaborate although the evidence seems strong. After spending a fair amount of space on the second generation of the Carter Family and their career in the 1950's through the 1970's, the book abruptly ends with the deaths of Maybelle and Sara at the end of the decade. Again, the author's unfamiliarity with country music raises it's head concerning the second Carter Family; he writes of their stage success as some sort of phenomeon not supported by hit records yet there were many big name country stars in the 1940's and 1950's who were known for their stage performances and not their limited record success. The Carter Sisters were genuinely popular (Anita Carter has long been widely regarded as one of the greatest country female singers despite never having real chart success on her own) and their singing was absolutely wonderful. They deserve a boxed CD set of their own. Despite some of my comments, I did enjoy this book. I just wish the author enjoyed country music a little more!
Rating:
Summary: A view from the top of "Mountain Music"
Review: The singing Carter family have influenced American music for over 70 years, and this biography seeks to give them their due as one of the premier families of American musical heritage. While a little too soap-opry in parts, Mark Zwoniter does an impressive job tracing the Carter's early musical history, and spins some compelling tales of the original Carters (husband and wife AP and Sara, and sister-in-law Maybelle).
The book traces the Carter's over-300 recorded performances and legendary radio shows (a highlight to listeners of the Depression Era), but sometimes sacrifices musical legacy for back stories involving pregnancies, affairs and name dropping (particularly as the family grows, and ascends to their rightful place as stars on the country music scene). This problem is particularly noticable in discussions of June Carter Cash, whose story would make a phenomenal movie, but overshadows the simple pleasures of the Carters' music itself.
"Oh Brother Where Art Thou", and the continued importance of the Carter classic "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" ensure that this legendary family remains important in music history today, and should provide a solid fan base for reading this book. It's a very interesting (and easy) read, with some great stories about a musical family on the road in pursuit of the American dream.
Rating:
Summary: A Book By Which Others Will Be Measured
Review: There is not a dull page in this 397 page account of The Carter Family. The writers manage to strike a happy medium between a scholarly treatise and a popular biography, something I find very appealing. In addition to being a biography of the Carters, the book also is a history of country music in the first half of the Twentieth Century roughly and a statement on rural Southern sociology of the time as well. The book is full of information that I suspect is told for the first time as well as trivia many of us knew but had forgotten: For example, there was a time when soft drinks were called "dopes" in East Tennessee. I had forgotten that and that my aunt wore Blue Waltz perfume. (There is a funny account of Maybelle's breaking a bottle of this dreadful perfume she was using as a slide for her guitar in a recording session.) I laughed out loud to learn that Helen Carter, who could learn to play any instrument almost immediately, was having trouble with her first accordian. It took Pee Wee King's telling her she was playing the instrument upside down to get her on the right track. The Original Carter Family was the first group to let the women lead as opposed to being backup singers. The less than admirable Ralph Peer of the recording industry coined the term "hillbilly" for the kind of music Carters and other country Southerners played in the early part of the 20th Century. There is a good account of A. P.'s collecting mountain songs all over the South. That contribution alone would make him a giant in folk/country music. Finally we learn a great deal about both generations of this great family, from A. P., Sarah and Maybelle to "Mama" Maybelle and her daughters. I was pleased to learn, for example, that Maybelle was as good and kind a person as she always seemed to be. (She even sat with sick people for part-time employment at one point in her later life when country music was in an eclipse.) There is a poignant contrast between what apparently was the long and happy marriage of Maybelle and A. P. Carter's brother Eck and A. P. and Sarah's marriage that ended in divorce. Certainly there is nothing more heart wrenching than Sarah's dedicating a song over the radio (apparently in the presence of A. P.) to the man she married after her divorce. The song was "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes." Coy Bays, the intended recipient, heard the song all the way in California and came to Texas for his woman. In the many years that A. P. lived alone thereafter, he never stopped loving Sara. She was preceded in death by him. Both of them are buried, however, only two rows from each other (even though Sara died in California and had been divorced from A. P. for many years) in Mount Vernon Cemetery in Maces Springs, Virginia with identical tombstones. Above their names and dates in beautiful pink marble are perfectly round 78 records and the words "Keep on the Sunny Side." This is a really fine book. Even folks not interested much in this sort of music should find it fascinating. It is the one by which later biographies of the Carters will be judged.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the read
Review: This book reminds me of the new book about Bill Monroe, Can't You hear me Calling. That book makes a lot of pretenses and some small errors and legions of overstatements about Bill Monroe and adds little to our knowledge of Big Mon the musician, but provides a rich and interesting and valuable addition to the literature by giving a well researched picture of his personal problems, his emotional outlook, and his life offstage from childhood on. In providing his true background, it dispels the usual mystifications and idiocies and stereotypes generated by Nashville. This book does the same for the Carters, something harder to do when you are talking about three to 10 people depending on who you count as a Carter. This book is weakened by the absence of documentation, even of the type of documentation that has become standard in serious non-fiction books written for a non-scholarly audience now expects, let alone what those of us who would like to think of ourselves as scholars of the music and the culture demand. Yes, I agree there are many gaffs here that a student of the music or a musician would find just plain ignorant. Yes, the book could have been better edited and fact checked. The publisher obviously didnt care to spend money to have competent editors go over the book, or to have it read by someone with any expertise in this kind of music or the history of music at all, such as one would expect. This speaks more to the current economics of the publishing industry where to get a book out, you have to offer a budget and a marketing plan like you were going to offer a new shade of nail polish. What emerges here is the story of the Carters as people. Of course, this dashes away all of the mystification of the simple Carters living up in their Clinch Mountain home and resituates them as modern Americans like the rest of us with ambitions, emotional problems, sexual needs, affairs, divorce, and all the rest. This is the real story that this book centers on. I wont regugitate it, you can do it yourself by buying this book. I found it very very readable. Even though as a former editor, a sometimes published writer, and an English professor I can be a big stickler, the little errors and the big did not halt my desire to devour this book because of its easy and interesting writing style and because it told the lives of the Carters in a compelling way. This is done without creating phony melodrama. Apart from the breakup of the marriage of AP and Sara, which to happen as peacefully as one would expect this to happen, particularly for rural Virginia, and the brush of Maybelle's family with Hank Williams and Johnny Cash who both seemed to be enamored with June, the Carters seem to have lived reasonable lives with good opportunities and the normal surmountable dramas. To tell their story as honestly as this book seems and find a way to make it interesting and have the personal storm inform the music and our understanding of life in general is an achievement. There is a lot of good fun description of things here. I particularly delighted in their description of Dr. Brinkley the quack who sponsored XERA the first border radio station the Carters played on. I was charmed by the portrait of the late Chet Atkins as well. Even a person with no special knowledge or interest of the music would find this book very enjoyable. Of course, anyone who wants to have a knowledge and an interest in the music of the Carters must have this book. Other than the bargain basement editing and fact checking job, the real weakness of this book is that it stands alone. We would not be bemoaining this books scant attempts to talk about the musical influences and musical style and changes in the Carters music if there were serious books written on those subjects. We would simply be placing this book where it belongs, an interesting personal history of the Carters' lives which should have been documented. I still give it 5 stars! The real problem like the Monroe book is that we need more books about this and similar subjects. We do need a documented book by someone who can really understand the great list of musical and cultural influences that were represented by the Carters. Likewise, we need more books seriously written about the construction of the country music industry
Rating:
Summary: About the people, not the music, still worth 5 stars
Review: This book reminds me of the new book about Bill Monroe, Can't You hear me Calling. That book makes a lot of pretenses and some small errors and legions of overstatements about Bill Monroe and adds little to our knowledge of Big Mon the musician, but provides a rich and interesting and valuable addition to the literature by giving a well researched picture of his personal problems, his emotional outlook, and his life offstage from childhood on. In providing his true background, it dispels a bunch of the usual stereotypes ignoramuses and people who take seriously the idiocies peddled by the country music business and the folk music mystifications. This book does the same for the Carters, something harder to do when you are talking about three to 10 people depending on who counts as a Carter. As has already been said, it is weakened by the fact that absolutely no documentation, even of the type that has become standard in serious non-fiction books written for a non-scholarly audience now expects, let alone what those of us who would like to think of ourselves as scholars of the music and the culture demand. Yes, I agree there are many gaffs here that a student of the music or a musician would find just plain ignorant. Yes, the book could have been better edited and fact checked. The publisher obviously didnt care to spend money to have competent editors go over the book, or to have it read by someone with any expertise in this kind of music or the history of music at all, such as one would expect. This speaks more to the current economics of the publishing industry where to get a book out, you have to offer a budget and a marketing plan like you were going to offer a new shade of nail polish. What emerges here is the story of the Carters as people. Of course, this dashes away all of the mystification of the simple Carters living up in their Clinch Mountain home and resituates them as modern Americans like the rest of us with ambitions, emotional problems, sexual needs, affairs, divorce, and all the rest. This is the real story that this book centers on. I wont regugitate it, you can do it yourself by buying this book. I found it very very readable. Even though as a former editor, a sometimes published writer, and an English professor trained to grade papers I am a big stickler, the little errors and the big did not halt my desire to devour this book because of its easy and interesting writing style and because it told the lives of the Carters in a compelling way. This is done without creating phony melodrama. Apart from the breakup of the marriage of AP and Sara, which seem to happen as peacefully as one would expect this to happen, particularly for rural Virginia, and the brush of Maybelle's family with Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, the Carters seem to have lived reasonable lives with good opportunities and the normal surmountable dramas. Yet, their lives do seem special, interesting and you want to read through this book because of the delicacy that they are portrayed with and the writers powers. They do informer and entertain the reader about many other things that came the Carters' way. I particularly delighted in their description of Dr. Brinkley the quack who sponsored XERA the first border radio station the Carters played on, and I was charmed by the portrait of Chet Atkins as well. Even a person with no special knowledge or interest of the music would find this book very enjoyable. Of course, anyone who wants to have a knowledge and an interest in the music of the Carters must have this book. Other than the bargain basement editing and fact checking job, the real weakness of this book is that it stands alone. We would not be bemoaining this books scant attempts to talk about the musical influences and musical style and changes in the Carters music if there were serious books written on those subjects. We would simply be placing this book where it belongs, an interesting personal history of the Carters' lives which should have been documented. I still give it 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: the face of appalachia
Review: this book was so good it made me want to be a dirt poor mountain man in the face of appalachia. i wanted to cut ice from the river in the winter and play the harpsichord or the violachord on the front porch with the girls in the faded ginko sun dresses. i wanted to pick up a fiddle and walk with june carter cash over mountain ranges to refight the war to suppress yankee arrogance. the only thing i knew about the carter family before was rosanne cash and kings road record shop. but now i wish i could hear maybelle, ap and sara in the recordings from bristol, tenn. and i wonder if there are any shacks in appalachia with cable TV.
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