Chet Atkins with the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle 1949

Country Routes – RFD CD 37

Format: CD, Compilation
Country: UK
Released: 2006
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Country
[Tracklist]
01 No Vacancy
02 Today
03 'Deed I Do
04 The Deaf Woman's Courtship
05 In The Pines
06 Eight More Miles To Louisville
07 Ain't It Hard To Love
08 No Tears In Heaven
09 She's Killing Me
10 I'm Fading Fast With The Tide
11 Blue Eyes Cryin' In The Rain
12 Carry Me Off To Old Virginny
13 Lord Lead Me On
14 Columbus Stockade Blues
15 Under The Hickory Nut Tree
16 When God Dips His Love In My Heart
17 What's The Use
18 Keep On The Sunny Side
19 In The Pines
20 Take Me Back To Tulsa
21 You Belong To Me
22 Meeting In The Air
23 Frankie And Johnny
24 Farther Along
25 I'll Be Thinking Of You Little Girl
[Credits]
Chet Atkins (guitar/vocals) Mother Maybelle (guitar/banjo/vocals) Helen Carter (vocals) Anita Carter (vocals) June Carter (vocals)
Remastering: Charlie Crump
[Notes]
After the original Carter Family trio stopped performing together, Maybelle Carter formed Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters in 1943 with her daughters Helen, Anita, and June Carter, and in 1947 Maybelle added a young Chet Atkins to the group to play electric lead guitar. This reconstituted Carter Family recorded some 60 songs in 1949 and 1950 to be used as live radio transcriptions, the earliest of which are included here (County Routes released the later sessions on CD in 2005 as The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle with Chet Atkins). The sound on these transcriptions is clear and sharp, and for those who only know the much more Appalachian-sounding A.P. Carter version of the Carter Family, it is a bit of a revelation, with a more modern Nashville veneer. A half-dozen or so of these tracks are Atkins guitar solos, and he sings an occasional lead vocal and a harmony or two, but it is the Carter sisters' joyous harmonies that really carry the show. Highlights include ensemble pieces like "You Belong to Me," "Someone's Last Day," "Under the Hickory Nut Tree" (featuring Atkins on the lead vocal), several short versions of "In the Pines," and a wonderful duet from Helen and Anita Carter on "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain." -- AllMusic Review by Steve Leggett