Happy New Year, Folks! We're Back At Work...

It's been ages since our last post here. 2010 was a tough year for the DON'T FORGET THIS SONG project. After numerous attempts to negotiate with Peermusic for lyrics usage, we finally opted not to include significant quotes from the Carter Family's songs.

The history of A. P. Carter's songs is complex and tangled. Scholars and fans quibble over who exactly owns what (or who should own what). Ralph Peer's original copyrights of 1927-1941, some of which have been proven patently false, still hold, and there's nothing we can do about that, except to move on.

This was a tough call, and it required an extensive re-tooling of our script. But the book is fine without the lengthy lyrics quotes.

We still have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but the book is in production again. Once we've gotten a chunk of new work finished, we'll post some samples here. Thanks for not forgetting us--and we admit it has been a long, long time!

We're Still Alive and Kicking!

Hi folks,

Long time, no update. We've been bogged down in legal negotiations with Peermusic. The process of obtaining the rights to quote from Carter Family song lyrics has been a lengthy one, fraught with delays galore.

We've been revising the book, with some invaluable informational help from Rita Forrester and Flo Wolfe. I think our book will have some historical "scoops" that haven't appeared elsewhere!

The book is looking good, overall. Once we've cleared up all the legal roadblocks, and feel we can proceed without worry or question, we'll be back on track. The delays have been frustrating, but in that time, we've been able to make the project better and stronger than it was before.

We hope to have more updates here, as this project is once again among the living. Thanks for your patience and for your continued interest...

Benefit Concert in Hiltons, VA, Jan 3

A benefit concert for the Forrester Family will take place on January 3 at the Carter Family Fold. Click here for details. As you may have seen in the previous post, the Forresters lost everything in a tragic house fire almost two weeks ago.

Last February, Rita was interviewed for an oral history project by Southern Foodways. To learn more about the Carter Family's love of music (and good cooking), watch a video of the interview here. Look to the sidebar for related interviews on food and music.

Heart-breaking news of tragic fire at Carter family member's home

Our hearts go out to Rita Forrester, who lost her home and her husband Bob in a tragic home fire that struck on December 7th.

Rita has been a kind and generous voice of help and information as David and I have worked on Don't Forget This Song. We have recently been working with her on corrections to our manuscript.

She has offered many helpful insights and corrections to some long-standing misinformation about the Carter Family's story. We're thankful for the gift of her insight and knowledge. Our book would, literally, not be the same without her kind-spirited input.

For news of the fire, read THIS ARTICLE.

A relief fund has been set up for Mrs. Forrester and her family. Details about that can be found HERE.

An updated version of the news story, with a video, can be found HERE.

It is heartening to see all the people who have offered help for the Forrester family in these dark hours.

If you can help Rita and her family with a donation, there is information on where you can contribute.

We wish Rita all the love and support in the world during this tragic time.

our opening page in color

Hi folks...

Long time, no post. We're working away on our book. We got our deadline extended. This graphic novel is requiring a lot of time and energy! We want it to be as good as possible. We hope it will prove worth the wait.

Here is a colored (but dialogue-less) version of the opening page of the book. (We're awaiting the arrival of a custom-made computer font based on David's lettering style. Once we get that, and have it installed, we can begin to type in the final dialogue.)

I hope the lack of dialogue isn't disconcerting. We tried to suggest some of the coloring techniques of the very early newspaper comics. It appears to us that they were colored using water color washes, which were interpreted by the engravers for the four-color printing process.

Comics were printed in flat colors from the start--especially in small-town newspapers, whose engravers could not equal the masterful work of those in the employ of the Chicago Tribune or the New York World or Herald-Tribune.

We have tried to evoke this delicate yet complex early color process here. Our goal is not to imitate the old ways--just to suggest them, and to incorporate aspects of them into our 21st-century efforts.

We hope you enjoy this sneak preview. We're going to do our best to post here at least once a week from now on with more preview pages, art samples, photos, etc. We hope to see you here again very soon!

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge it...

Art in Progress

Here is the first panel of the chapter wherein AP Carter meets Sara Dougherty for the first time.

Mike Seeger: 1933-2009

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of musician and folklorist Mike Seeger. Seeger died at his home in Virginia on Friday, August 7th.

Without Mike Seeger's love of old-time music, and his great efforts to chronicle its songs and musicians, a book project such as ours might not even exist.

We had the great honor of speaking with Seeger twice in conjunction with Don't Forget This Song. It was a genuine pleasure to speak with him about the Carter Family and their musical importance.

Seeger (he insisted that I call him Mike) spoke eloquently and emotionally about the musical contributions of Sara, Maybelle and A.P. in our interviews. His comments helped David and I both to better understand the innovations the Carters brought to the country music songform.

70-plus years later, it's easy to take their music for granted--it feels as though the haunting sounds they made have always existed. But recorded country music before the arrival of the Carters was a much different entity.

Just as A.P. Carter helped define the forms of the country song, with his skillful editing of older folk and parlor songs, and his arrangements of longer ballad pieces to fit the 3.5 minute playing time of a 78 RPM recording, Sara and Maybelle brought constant musical innovations in the way they played their instruments.

Maybelle, in particular, continued to expand the possibilities of the humble guitar as an expressive, vital musical instrument as she performed on the 300+ recordings made by the original Carter Family.

From her very basic backings on the six 1927 Bristol recordings to her development of "the Carter scratch," the introduction of influences from blues, Hawaiian, Hispanic and other diverse musics, and her continual growth as a performer, Maybelle was country music's original envelope-pusher.

Talking with Mike helped bring this aspect of the Carter Family front and center. It was a great gift to have these long conversations with him.

Via his group, the New Lost City Ramblers, and via his tireless exploration of traditional music and its performers, Seeger renewed interest in old-time music, while keeping it alive and well to a modern audience.

He kept these passions alive well into the 21st century. His 2007 CD, Early Southern Guitar Sounds, is a remarkable collection of traditional tunes, played on 25 different vintage stringed instruments. If you aren't familiar with Seeger's music, this CD might prove a good starting point.

If you'd like to learn more about Mike Seeger's life and his accomplishments as a musician and folklorist, Wikipedia has a brief but solid entry on him here. Several obituaries are linked within the Wikipedia piece.

Thank you, Mike, for taking the time to speak with us about the Carter Family. You will be missed by many.