Janette Carter Saturday 11:00a Event Area K Web: Carter Family Audio Sample Howdayado! Longing For Home

Janette Carter is the daughter of A.P. and Sara's Carter, of the legendary Carter Family. Although they had performed together for several years, the Carters made their first recordings in August of 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, when they auditioned for Ralph Peer of Victor Records. As a result of that recording session, the Carters and Jimmie Rodgers came to be the first commercially viable "hillbilly" musicians. They laid the groundwork for country music as we know it today.

In the late 1930s, Janette traveled to Texas with her parents and Aunt Maybelle to perform on radio. Their radio shows for Mexican border station XERA spanned several years and later became the basis for many of the recorded works of the Carters. After they left Mexico, the Original Carter Family stopped performing together. All of the Original Carter Family are now deceased, and for a number of years Janette Carter put her music on the back burner in order to raise her three children. Before her father died in 1960, Janette made a promise that she would try to carry on his music.

By 1974, she was ready to establish her own concert series. In doing so, she wanted to keep the musical tribute to her family close to the mountain home that served as the inspiration for so many of their songs (over 300 in all). Without realizing it, she laid the groundwork for one of this country's first rural arts organizations. As program attendance grew, the decision was made to form the Carter Center. Originally, the concerts were held in A.P.'s old store, but the crowds soon outgrew the small building, and the Carter Fold theater was erected in 1976.

Janette continues to run the Carter Family Fold to this day, with community concerts of old time music every Saturday night. As the old time music of Southwest Virginia and the surrounding region experiences an unparalleled renaissance in American popular consciousness, it is most important to remember and honor those dedicated individuals who persevered through leaner times to keep this precious American art form alive and vibrant.

The Carter Family Fold, Hiltons, Virginia

The Story of the Carter Fold

Since 1974 Janette and Joe, the children of Sara Carter of American music's celebrated Carter Family, have been holding Saturday-night concerts in Hiltons, Virginia, where their father Alvin Pleasant Carter ran a store for many years after his marriage to their mother ended. In 1976 the Carter children built a barn/concert venue on the property, calling it the Carter Fold ("fold" defined as "gathering place"), where they continue to perform every Saturday night along with other traditional mountain musicians. In 2004, Janette was 81, Joe 77.

Now on Saturday nights, hundreds of fans crowd the Carter Fold in Maces Spring to celebrate not only A.P., Sara and Maybelle, but traditional performances of country music as well. Both Joe and Jeanette participate in the concerts, and Carter memorabilia and records are sold in front of the stage each night.