THE WINDING STREAM
The Carters, the Cashes and the Course of Country Music
A feature documentary–in–progress written, directed, and produced by Beth Harrington
Produced by Amy and Nancy Harrington
There is a stream that courses through American roots music from which virtually all country music flows. Its source is in the Appalachian foothills in a place called Maces Springs, Virginia. It was there that A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and his sister-in-law Maybelle began their careers as three of the earliest stars of country music. From their earliest days as Victor recording artists to their international success via the phenomenon of Border Radio, the Original Carter Family made their mark on the history of American recorded music.
These three didn’t just play the music emerging from their hill country upbringing. They invented it. A.P. was both song collector and composer, crafting and arranging snippets of ancient, musty melodies into commercial American popular music. Maybelle took the then-underplayed guitar and made it into the cornerstone of country instrumentation that we know today. And Sara became the first well-known woman’s voice in country music, stamping it with the eerie Gothic quality we find in so much of the country canon.
