CARTER FAMILY: Very Best Of (3 CDs)

It has been argued that one day in history marks the real beginning of country music… On 31 July 1927 talent scout Ralph Peer arrived in Bristol, Tennessee offering anyone and everyone who came along $50 for new songs. Among those who arrived and auditioned that historic day was A.P. Carter, who arrived with his wife Sara and sister in law Maybelline. Ralph Peer later said that his talent lay in “being where the lightning is going to strike”. Peer recognised that the songs which poured out of the Carter Family were historic, but also extremely marketable. For the next 15 years, the Carter Family dominated the airwaves of American radio. But such was their legacy that nearly a century on, the music that the Carters injected into the mainstream lives on. The material heard on this comprehensive 3CD collection formed the foundation of not one, but three important strands in the development of popular music. It was the songs of the Carter Family which underpinned country & western music, the 1950s skiffle boom and the 1960s folk revival.

Disc 1

1. Wildwood Flower
2. Anchored In Love
3. Wabash Cannonball
4. The Little Black Train
5. Sinking In The Lonesome Sea
6. I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes
7. Lulu Walls
8. Maple On The Hill
9. The Dying Soldier
10. Kitty Waltz
11. Diamonds In The Rough
12. Just A Few More Days
13. Black Jack David
14. The Rambling Boy
15. Sweet Fern
16. Answer To Weeping Willow
17. Waves On The Sea
18. There's No One Like Mother To Me
19. He Never Came Back
20. Bury Me Beneath The Willow

Disc 2

1. The Picture On The Wall
2. Keep On The Sunny Side
3. Sailor Boy
4. The Foggy Mountain Top
5. Forsaken Love
6. In The Shadow Of Clinch Mountain
7. Chewing Gum
8. We Parted By The Riverside
9. Just Another Broken Heart
10. Single Girl, Married Girl
11. My Clinch Mountain Home
12. On The Rock Where Moses Stood
13. My Old Cottage Home
14. They Call Her Mother
15. The Mountains Of Tennessee
16. In The Shadow Of The Pines
17. Little Girl That Played On My Knee
18. The Grave On The Green Hillside
19. When I'm Gone
20. When The Evening Sun Goes Down

Disc 3

1. John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man
2. Angel Band
3. I'll Be All Smiles Tonight
4. The Titanic
5. Little Darling, Pal Of Mine
6. Coal Miner's Blues
7. Lover's Lane
8. Who's That Knocking On My Window
9. In The Valley Of The Shenandoah
10. My Dixie Darling
11. The Wandering Boy
12. There'll Be No Distinction There
13. Dark Haired True Lover
14. You Denied Your Love
15. Lonesome Valley
16. Meet Me By The Moonlight Alone
17. You Are My Flower
18. God Gave Noah The Rainbow Sign
19. The Storms Are On The Ocean
20. Farewell Nellie