| Snake Handlin' Man | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Dave Carter | ||||
| Released | 1995 | |||
| Genre | Folk Singer-songwriter | |||
| Length | mm:ss | |||
| Label | Red River Records (self-release) | |||
| Dave Carter chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Dirty Linen | favorable-mixed [1] |
| FAME | favorable [2] |
Snake Handlin' Man is a 1995 album by American folk singer Dave Carter. This was his solo debut prior to his very successful partnership with fiddler, Tracy Grammer (see Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer). The duo re-recorded "The River Where She Sleeps" for their 1998 album When I Go , and "Cowboy Singer" for their 2000 release, Tanglewood Tree . Prior to Carter's death in 2002 the duo re-recorded the remaining nine songs and two new songs. The resulting final album, Seven is the Number was released in 2006.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Folk music includes traditional folk music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that.
Dave Carter was an American folk singer-songwriter who described his style as "post-modern mythic American folk music." He was one half of the duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, who were heralded as the new "voice of modern folk music" in the months before Carter's unexpected death in July 2002. They were ranked as number one on the year-end list for "Top Artists" on the Folk Music Radio Airplay Chart for 2001 and 2002, and their popularity has endured in the years following Carter's death. Joan Baez who went on tour with the duo in 2002 spoke of Carter's songs in the same terms that she once used to promote a young Bob Dylan:
"There is a special gift for writing songs that are available to other people, and Dave's songs are very available to me. It's a kind of genius, you know, and Dylan has the biggest case of it. But I hear it in Dave's songs, too.
