Saturday, December 12, 2015

About "The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song"





“The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song” is a graphic novel that tells the true story of one of the earliest and most influential recorded country music groups. At the heart of the story is Alvin Pleasant Carter (known as A.P.), a farmer born in a lonely valley in Appalachia who has dreams of making a living with music, his great passion in life. And amazingly, his dreams do come true – but at the price of his marriage and the stability of his family.

A.P.'s wife Sara, orphaned at a young age, lives with a permanent sadness that colors her haunting singing voice. Sara has little desire to be a celebrity, but follows the whims of her husband.

Sara's teenage cousin Maybelle is a guitar virtuoso who would become as innovative and influential with her acoustic Gibson as Jimi Hendrix would later be on the electric guitar. 

Together, the three Carters changed American music in ways that would touch, among others, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash (who would become Maybelle's son-in-law through his marriage to June Carter). 

The “Carter Family” graphic novel was co-plotted by Frank Young and David Lasky. David drew the art, assisted by a small team of background inkers. Frank wrote all the dialogue, and also colored the entire book in a palette that beautifully evokes the great newspaper comic strips of the 1930's. They've attempted to capture the in words and pictures the heartfelt honesty heard in the music of the Carter Family.

This book will make an excellent gift for anyone in your life who loves a good story. Please ask for it by name at your local general store. Or, if you must, order it from a reputable online merchant.




Thursday, December 3, 2015

Bristol Sessions Movie is Filming Now


Thanks to Ron McConnell, I just learned that a movie about the Bristol Sessions, the historic "big bang of country music" (which is depicted from the Carters' point of view in "Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song"), is being filmed right now in Bristol, TN/VA!

Here's a link to an article on the subject.

The film is a celebration of the sessions themselves, and the new album "Orthophonic Joy" (which I have not yet heard, but am going to seek out!) on which contemporary artists cover Bristol Sessions songs (acoustically, of course!).