Helen Myrl Carter Jones[1] (September 12, 1927 – June 2, 1998) was an American country music singer. The eldest daughter of Maybelle Carter, she performed with her mother and her younger sisters, June Carter and Anita Carter, as a member of The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, a pioneering all female country and folk music group. After the death of A.P. Carter in 1960, the group became known as The Carter Family.[2][3]
Helen Carter had a professional career in music that spanned 60 years. Many historians point to her 1937 radio debut as the beginning of her career [4][5] but Janette Carter (Helen's cousin and daughter of original Carter Family band members A. P. and Sara Carter) recalled that she and Helen performed together at original Carter Family appearances at least two years prior to this date.[6] As a child, Helen Carter played to some of the largest radio audiences in history by way of the powerful signals from the Mexican Border Stations of the 1930s and 1940s. Some of these stations could be heard throughout and even beyond the North American continent.[7][8][9][3] After the breakup of the original Carter Family in 1943, Maybelle formed a group showcasing Helen and her younger sisters [3][10] The group joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry in 1950[9][11] securing Helen, June and Anita's place in country music history as being among the youngest Grand Ole Opry inductees ever. They were aged 22, 20 and 17 respectively. The Carters were on the first nationally televised network program to feature country music, The Kate Smith Show, and were among the first country music acts to tour behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia.[11] They were given the "Favorite Country Group" award by the American Music Awards in 1973 and the "Gospel Act of the Year" award by the Music City News Awards in 1980.[5]
Helen rarely sang lead in the Carter Family group and seemed content to focus her efforts on harmony and instrumental backing. She played a variety of instruments including accordion, autoharp, guitar, piano and mandolin.[2][12][13] Many writers and historians list Helen Carter as the best overall musician and most talented songwriter among the Carter Sisters.[6][10][14][15] Helen Carter was largely responsible for arranging the group's vocals. It was not uncommon for some songs to have multiple key changes as each group member sang a verse or as the entire group varied vocal combinations throughout the song. Another remarkable technique, difficult to describe and rarely recorded, had the group members solo-singing small segments of lyric lines or even portions of individual words. The effect was a seamless transfer of the lead vocal from one singer to the next. Sometimes the switch was so subtle that it could go unnoticed except to the most discerning ears of long-time fans. Often the group sang in a chorale type arrangement that was reminiscent of old-time gospel music singing. In this style the various lead vocals were woven throughout the song and changed unpredictably. A harmony voice could be thrust into the lead vocal within fractions of a second and then fade into the background just as quickly a short time later. Helen Carter was also widely regarded as the Carter Sister most in touch with the group's rich musical tradition and the one most dedicated to its preservation.[4][16][17] Along with her mother, Maybelle Carter, Helen Carter was recorded by the Smithsonian Institution in 1975.[5][13]
Solo career
Helen pursued a solo career apart from the family. She recorded for a number of historically important independent labels such as Tennessee, Republic, Starday and Hickory. She had releases on major labels such as Columbia and Okeh as well. She recorded duets with such acts as The Willis Brothers, Johnny Bond, famed Grand Olde Opry announcer Grant Turner, and Wiley Barkdull (a singer who sounded a lot like Lefty Frizzell).[18] In the 1960s, Helen teamed with Dolores "Tootsie" Dinning (of the Dinning Sisters and later The Nashville Edition) to form a short-lived group called the Blondettes that recorded for MGM.[4][18] While many of Carter's solo recordings were favorites with loyal fans and always welcomed by concert goers, they did not have a great deal of commercial success.[3] One likely reason for Helen's limited success as a solo artist may have been competition for radio air play with other members of her famous clan.
Throughout the recording career of the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, much of the time, all four group members had individual recording contracts as well.[4][9][10][19][20] Though each had her own style, it is of note that all members of the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle group (in various combinations) often sang and played on one another's solo recordings.[21] Therefore, it was not unusual for the members' solo recordings to sound a lot like the group recordings.
Another possible reason for Helen Carter's limited success with her solo recordings may simply have been that she was ahead of her time in terms of what the conservative country music establishment was willing to accept. The 1950s was an era in which barriers were being broken by the likes of Kitty Wells. Yet, some of Helen's self-penned lyrics may have been deemed a bit risque:
From Unfit Mother: My neighbors said I was too wild, unfit to mother my own child
From Heart Full of Shame: I came to him in a veil of purest white, but you came to him as an angel of the night
From There Ain't no Future for Me: When you take me in your arms and snuggle me up tight, I can't help but wonder who you held last night
On occasion Helen Carter's writing would lure listeners into uncomfortable, dark situations:
From Satan's Child: ...he was tempted more than any man could stand...he thought he could save himself by taking Nelly's life...
From Is this My Destiny?: At night I toss and wonder why I must live while others die
From The Pickup: The morning papers told how she died. Jumped from a bridge; suicide
Helen's greatest commercial success came by way of her songwriting. She wrote for Acuff-Rose Music and Pamper Music, among other companies.[21] Some of the better known titles she wrote or co-wrote include "The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea", "Wall to Wall Love", "Fast Boat to Sydney," "The First One to Love You", "We Lived it Up," "Rosanna's Going Wild", "Loving You Was Worth This Broken Heart", "Poor Old Heartsick Me", "Is This My Destiny?" and "What am I Supposed to Do?" Music acts as diverse as Skeeter Davis, Red Foley, Australian singer Dorothy Baker, the Byrds, Jan Howard, Wanda Jackson, Carl Butler, Ernest Ashworth, Johnny Cash, Linda Manning, Duane Eddy, the Knitters, Billy Grammer, Dawn Kight & the Casuals, Ray Price, Jimmie Dickens, Willie Nelson, Faron Young, Johnnie & Jack, the Osborne Brothers, Jean Shepard, the Cowslingers, the Louvin Brothers, the Browns, Ann-Margret, Chet Atkins, George Morgan, Waylon Jennings and Mark Dinning are among the more than sixty who have recorded her songs.[11][13]
Helen Carter recorded two solo albums for Old Homestead Records[22] and did guest spots on recordings by her niece Carlene Carter and Southern Gospel artist Jacky Jack White later in her life. Additionally there was an LP collaboration with old-time artists the Phipps Family. Helen also teamed with various members of the Carter Family for periodic recordings. In addition to the numerous recordings before Maybelle's death, Helen recorded with later versions of the Carter Family. In the 1980s a group featuring Helen (with two of her sons: David & Kevin; another son, Danny, occasionally performed with an earlier version of the group in the 1970s) and Anita (with her daughter Lorrie) recorded two albums and some singles for the Audiograph label. Helen, Anita and June (with one of her daughters, Carlene) recorded for Polygram/Mercury a few years later. June's other daughter, Rosie joined the group after Carlene's solo career began to gain momentum in the 1990s. On personal appearances it was not unusual for the lineup of the Carter Family to change. June's son John Carter Cash, and her granddaughter, Tiffany; as well as other relatives, sometimes performed with the group.[21]
Career with the Carter Family
With the Carter Sisters and Maybelle, Helen did experience chart success. During the 1960s and 1970s, the group charted a few albums (such as Country's First Family, 1976) and singles including "Traveling Minstrel Band", "The World Needs a Melody", and "A Song for Mama".[23] Many were duet recordings with Helen Carter's brother-in-law Johnny Cash. It is also of note that the group was prominently featured on numerous Cash recordings but often went uncredited. Throughout their careers, in fact, all four group members recorded (as soloists and in various combinations) with such acts as Johnny Horton, Dolly Parton, the Wilburn Brothers, Boots Randolph, Grandpa Jones, Flatt & Scruggs, Carl Smith, Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, Darrell Glenn, Lefty Frizzell and many others. They were sought after for both their vocal and instrumental contributions in the studio. These collaborations produced a number of charting hits (and in at least one case a multi-million seller) along with various obscure B-sides and album cuts.[21]
Helen Carter was a regular on Johnny Cash's network television program and on his TV specials.[3][8][11] Along with other members of the Carter Family, Helen received a gold record for her participation in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. II.[5] The group sang backup on two tracks from the album.[21]
Marriage and children
In 1950 Helen married Glenn Jones of Baxley, Georgia. After the family's move to the Nashville area, they lived in Madison, Hendersonville and Dickson, Tennessee. They had four sons (Kenneth Burton, Glenn Daniel, David Lawrence, and Kevin Carter Jones) and six grandchildren.[4] They tragically lost their son, Kenny, as the result of an auto accident, at 16 years old. At the time, Kenny had recently been signed as a recording artist for Monument Records.
Death
Helen Carter suffered from gastrointestinal problems which led to heart problems that took her life in 1998 at age 70.
Helen's song "Heart Full of Shame" was used in the 2003 movie Northfork. "Juke Box Blues", co-written with Maybelle, was used in the 2005 movie Walk the Line.[21]
Helen Carter was portrayed by actress Janet McMahan in the musical Wildwood Flower: The June Carter Story.[24]
In 2006, a forgotten set of recordings that Helen made with her sisters and a niece in 1991 was discovered and released to the public on Sphere Records.[25] Unlike the majority of recordings made with her family, most tracks from the collection prominently featured Helen on lead vocal.
In 2009 Rosanne Cash released her acclaimed album The List. In publicity for the album Cash repeatedly discussed the impact that Helen Carter (her aunt through marriage) had on her as a musician, performer and as a songwriter. Cash also noted that Helen Carter spent hours teaching her to play guitar.[26]
In the 2013 Lifetime Television Movie Ring of Fire Helen Carter was portrayed by young singers Emma Peasall and Hannah Peasall at different stages of her life [27]
Partial discography
Editors Note: A complete discography for the second generation of the Carter Family or any of its members will likely be problematic due primarily to how many of the recordings were credited and marketed. For example, some group recordings had a single vocalist or a single lead vocalist with highly subdued group harmonies. Examples of "solo" recordings where listeners can clearly identify one, two or all three other group members singing and/or playing abound. Finally, some records were credited as ___ Carter and the Carter Sisters (or Carter Family) or as The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, featuring ___ Carter. Also, there are numerous collaborations with other artists on which the Carters may or may not have been credited.
Solo singles: 1950s
"I'm All Broke Out with Love"; "Fiddlin' Around"; "There's a Right Way, A Wrong Way"; "Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes", Tennessee Records
"I Like my Loving Overtime", "Like All Get Out", "Unfit Mother", "You're Right but I Wish You Were Wrong", Okeh Records
"Heart Full of Shame"; "No No It's Not So"; "Set the Wedding"; "Sweet Talking Man"; "There Ain't No Future for Me"; "What's to Become of Me Now", Hickory Records
Solo albums: Old Homestead records
This Is for You Mama (1979): lead and harmony vocals, guitar, mandolin, autoharp Songs include "Carter Guitar Medley", "Dark & Stormy Weather", "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room", "Helen's Mandolin Rag", "Hello Stranger", "I Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow", "Is This My Destiny", "Lonesome Day", "Poor Wildwood Flower", "Red River Blues", "Tickling the Frets", "Winding Stream"
Clinch Mountain Memories (1993): lead vocals, guitar, autoharp Songs include "Clinch Mountain Love", "Poor Old Heartsick Me", "Why Do You Weep Dear Willow", "If You Were Losing Him to Me", "Kneeling Drunkard's Plea", "Mama Sang", "Meeting in the Air", "Hot Footin' It", "Lonesome Fiddle Blues", "No Distinction There", "You Are My Flower"
Collaborations on singles
1950s
He Made You for Me, I'd Like To, duet with Wiley Barkdull, Tennessee Records
I Went to Your Wedding, duet with Johnny Bond, Columbia Records
Counterfeit Kisses, and Sparrow in the Treetop, duets with Don Davis, Tennessee Records
As Long as You Believe in Me, Duet with Bob Eaton, Tennessee Records
Heaven's Decision, I'll Keep on Loving You, My Dearest & Best, and You Can't Stop Me from Dreaming, duets with Grant Turner, Tennessee Records/Republic Records
1960s
Little Butterfly, My Love is Many Things, with the Blondettes, MGM Records
Release Me, duet with Bobby Sykes, Starday Records
Wild Side of Life, with the Willis Brothers, Starday Records
1970s or 1980s
Way Worn Traveler, duet with Johnny Cash, Columbia Records
Collaborations on albums
Appalachian Pride (Solo album by June Carter). Helen plays accordion and sings harmony on some songs. (Columbia Records, 1975)
Hills of Home (Phipps Family with Helen Carter). Helen sings lead on Walking in the King's Highway. She sings or sings/plays guitar on several other songs. (Mountain Eagle Records, 1980)
Southern Songbook (Jacky Jack White with the Carter Sisters). Helen sings lead on Mary's Heart, Martha's Hands and sings harmony on some other songs. (Buffalo Run Records, 1996)
Selected examples of Carter Family recordings featuring Helen
1940s and 1950s: RCA Records
Helen plays accordion on most of the recordings. She sings lead on "Willow Won't You Weep for Me". A partial family collaboration with Chet Atkins titled "Under the Hickory Nut Tree" features Helen's singing.
1960s: Liberty Records
Helen sings lead on "Just Another Broken Heart" from the Carter Family Album. She and Maybelle duet on other tracks.
1960s: Columbia Records
Helen shares lead vocals with June on "Poor Old Heartsick Me" from the Best of the Carter Family album.
1970s: Columbia Records
Helen shares lead vocals with June on "In the Pines" from the Country's First Family album. She shares lead vocals with Anita on "2001 Ballad to the Future" and "Take Me Home Country Roads" from the album Traveling Minstrel Band. Helen sings lead on "Let Me Be There" and "Where No One Stands Alone" on the Three Generations album.
1980s: Audiograph Records
From the album Audiograph Alive, Helen sings lead and plays guitar on "Wildwood Flower". On the album "Breaking Tradition", she sings lead on Loving Me on His Mind.
1980s: Polygram Records
Helen shares lead vocals on some songs, and her guitar work is featured heavily on many titles from the album Wildwood Flower. According to taped interviews with various members of the Carter Family, the act recorded at least 30 other songs during these sessions. This material has not been released.
Valerie June Carter Cash was an American country singer and songwriter. A five-time Grammy award-winner, she was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of singer Johnny Cash. Prior to her marriage to Cash, she was known as June Carter and continued to be credited as such even after her marriage. She played guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows. Carter Cash was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound influence on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock music, as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s.
Alvin Pleasant Delaney Carter was an American musician and a founding member of the Carter Family, one of the most notable acts in the history of country music.
Sara Elizabeth Carter was an American country music musician, singer, and songwriter. Remembered mostly for her deep, distinctive, mature singing voice, she was the lead singer on most of the recordings of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s. In her earliest recordings her voice was pitched very high.
"Mother" Maybelle Carter was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument." It was named after her. She was a member of the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s and a member of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group.
The Pointer Sisters are an American girl group from Oakland, California, who achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as R&B, pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country, and rock. The Pointer Sisters have won three Grammy Awards and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994. The group had 13 US top 20 hits between 1973 and 1985.
Carlene Carter is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith.
The song "Ring of Fire" was made popular by Johnny Cash after it appeared on his 1963 compilation album Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash. Written by Cash's eventual second wife, June Carter, and songwriter Merle Kilgore, "(Love's) Ring of Fire" was originally recorded by June's sister, Anita Carter, on her 1962 album, Folk Songs Old and New.
Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden is a 1969 recording of a Johnny Cash concert at Madison Square Garden. It was released in 2002.
Ina Anita Carter was an American singer who played upright bass, guitar, and autoharp. She performed with her sisters, Helen and June, and her mother, Maybelle, initially under the name The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle. Carter had three top ten hits as well as other charting singles. She was the first to record the songs "Blue Boy" and "Ring of Fire". Carter was also a songwriter, most notably co-writing the Johnny Cash hit "Rosanna's Going Wild."
The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me is the 48th album by country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1974 on Columbia Records. Although credited to Cash alone, the album includes solo performances by his daughter Rosanne Cash, and stepdaughters Rosie Nix Adams and Carlene Carter, predating the launch of their own solo careers. Two songs on the album were written by Kris Kristofferson, while "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" is a re-recording of a highly successful Cash single, his first smash hit for Columbia from back in 1958. "Keep on the Sunny Side" had previously been recorded for the early 1960s Carter Family album of the same title, on which Cash had provided guest vocals. "Father and Daughter " is a cover version of a well-known Cat Stevens song and a duet with Cash's stepdaughter, Rosie Nix Adams, with slight changes in lyrics; a version of the same song would be released in 2003 on Unearthed, as a duet with Fiona Apple. June Carter Cash also performs a solo track without her husband, one of only a couple of occasions where she did this on a Johnny Cash album outside of concert recordings.
Johnny & June is a compilation album and 60th overall album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Bear Family Records in 1978. Like The Unissued Johnny Cash it consists of material that was either unreleased or not widely available. Most of the songs were recorded from 1964 to 1965, with the exception of "Smiling Bill McCall" from 1960. The songs, "Cotton Picking Hands" and "Wer Kennt Den Weg" and "In Virginia" had been previously released on singles. "Thunderball" was recorded for the James Bond film, but was ultimately turned down in favor of Tom Jones.
Wildwood Flower is the fourth and final album from June Carter Cash. It was released in 2003 on the Dualtone record label, four months after her death and only a few days before the death of Johnny Cash, who provides backing vocals, making this the final release of his lifetime. It was produced by their son, John Carter Cash. The album's opening track, "Keep on the Sunny Side," was a Carter Family anthem that June Carter Cash had previously recorded twice with Johnny Cash: for the 1964 Carter Family album of the same title, and for the 1974 Johnny Cash album The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me. "The Road to Kaintuck," written by June, had previously been recorded by her husband on several occasions for Columbia Records. The medley of "Church in the Wildwood"/"Lonesome Valley" had been a regular part of Johnny Cash concerts in the 1970s.
Anita Renee Cockerham, known professionally as Anita Cochran, is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She has released two albums for Warner Bros. Records Nashville and one for Straybranch Records. Cochran is best known for her late 1997-early 1998 single "What If I Said", a duet with Steve Wariner that reached the number-one position on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
The Carter Sisters, were an American band consisting of Maybelle Carter and her daughters June Carter Cash, Helen Carter, and Anita Carter. Each played an instrument, with June being a pioneer as a front-man. Formed during World War II, the group recorded and performed into the 1990s. Maybelle and Ezra named the band "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" and recorded under that title for 2 record labels RCA and Columbia. Maybelle wanted her daughters to be the face of the band.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two is the nineteenth studio album by American country folk group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, released on May 1, 1989. The album follows the same concept as the band's 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which featured guest performances from many notable country music stars.
Carter Family picking, also known as the thumb brush, the Carter lick, the church lick, or the Carter scratch, is a style of fingerstyle guitar named after Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family. It is a distinctive style of rhythm guitar in which the melody is played on the bass strings, usually low E, A, and D while rhythm strumming continues above, on the treble strings, G, B, and high E. This often occurs during the break. The style bears similarity to the frailing style of banjo playing and is the rhythm Bill Monroe adapted for bluegrass music two decades later.
Single Girl, Married Girl is a folk song made famous by The Carter Family, about the differences in lifestyle between the two title characters.
Carter Girl is the tenth studio album by American country music singer Carlene Carter. It is her first release since 2008's Stronger, as well as her first album for Rounder Records. All twelve tracks on the album were written or co-written by a member of the Carter Family, with the majority being composed by Carlene's granduncle A.P. Carter.
Laura Weber White, also known as Laura White, Laura Weber, Laura Cash, and Laura Weber Cash is an American country fiddler, singer, songwriter, and guitar player. White has worked as a session musician on many albums and toured with several artists, including the late Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. She has released two solo albums: Among My Souvenirs in 2003 and Awake But Dreaming in 2010. Both were recorded at the Cash Cabin Studio. White became known as a fine stage fiddler after winning both state and National Fiddler contests in Oregon and Idaho. She is an artist on 16 Cash family albums from 2003 to 2014.
1 2 Scott County History Book Committee (1991) The Carter Family: A Biography
1 2 3 4 5 Zwonitzer, M. & Hirshberg, C. (2002). Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music. Simon & Schuster, NY.
1 2 3 4 5 Orr, J. (1998). Carter Family Daughter Dies: Helen Carter Jones Rites Friday Free-Lance Star, Fredericksburg, VA
1 2 3 4 Carter Family Fan Club News (no date). Historic Dates in the Career of the Carter Family.
↑ Wolfe, C. (1994). The Carter Family: Their Arrival in Texas in 1938. The Journal of the Academy for the Preservation of Old Time Country Music.
1 2 Zitz, M. (1996). Country Legend Carter the Main Attraction. Free-Lance Star, Fredericksburg, VA.
1 2 3 Wolfe, C. (1998). The Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle: Living Tradition. The Journal of the Academy for the Preservation of Old-Time Country Music.
1 2 3 Foley, (1961). Carter Family Swinging on GI Club Scene. Stars & Stripes: European Edition.
1 2 3 4 Irwin, J. R. (2000). A People & Their Music: The Story Behind the Story of Country Music. Schiffer Publishing, PA.
↑ Anonymous, (1989). Circle Always Unbroken for Helen Carter Jones: Daughter Recalls Early Days. Free-Lance Star, Fredericksburg, VA
1 2 3 Anonymous (1987). The Carter Family Editor's note: this item is believed to be a publicity sheet issued by PolyGram Records, the Carter Family's record label at the time
↑ Salon.com (1999). Musician Anita Carter dies at 66
↑ Hawkins, M. (2009). June Carter: Hillybilly Favorites, liner notes. British Archive of Country Music, UK
↑ Zitz, M. (1999). Loss of Helen Carter Strikes Fans. Free-Lance Star, Fredericksburg, VA
↑ Fergerson, M. (1954). Carter Sisters Led by Mother Maybelle. Pickin' and Singin' News.
1 2 Sunny Side Sentinel: Official Publication for the Carter Family, Discography Issue (1980).
↑ Anonymous, (1961). Mother-Daughter Folk Singers Tour Army-AF Clubs in Europe. The Overseas Weekly.
↑ Anonymous, The Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle: Top Folk Family (1953). Country Song Roundup.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Various liner notes and credits from albums, singles, Compact Discs, etc.
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