The Carter Family - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
by Kathy Conkwright
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DVD details
Director: Kathy ConkwrightBrand: Paramount
Performer: Robert Duvall
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 60 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Pbs (Direct)
DVD Reviews of The Carter Family - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
DVD Review: A good introduction to the first family of American music
Summary: 4 Stars
My main complaint about this documentary is that it is simply too short and therefore incomplete. You get an introduction to the members of the original trio and the highlights of their successes as well as the principle strains in A.P. and Sara's marriage, and a bit about Maybelle's importance as a guitarist, but in the end it is barely an introduction. The show ends up feeling more like a rough outline of the Carter Family story than something that is anyway comprehensive. Watching it made me wish that Ken Burns would make his next major project a 15 hour documentary on American roots music. Wouldn't that be something to watch?
What there is in the documentary is good, but there just isn't enough of it. I wish they had made this at least a two-hour documentary. There was just no time to get to any of the good stuff, such as the larger place that their music played in American life. For instance, the Carters did virtually no performing across the country. Unlike Jimmie Rodgers, who embarked on long tours throughout the U.S., what little performing the Carters did was done in their local community. They were more likely to sing at a church social than across the state line. They did very little performing on radio or elsewhere. As artists, their careers were almost exclusively restricted to recordings.
Now, I'm not saying that what they actually dealt with on the show was wrong, but that there simply wasn't time to deal with everything that needed to be addressed. Sometimes less really is less. So while this is worth watching, it really just scratches the surface of the role that the Carter Family played in American popular culture. But it is an OK place to start.
There is a slight inaccuracy that one of the contributors to the documentary, Barry Mazor, could have corrected. As he points out in his recent (and highly recommended) book, MEETING JIMMIE RODGERS, the Original Carter Family did not perform for the last time in 1943, as is often repeated, but in 1953 at the unveiling of the Jimmie Rodgers memorial in Meridian, Mississippi. Among the many performers who assembled to honor the Singing Brakeman were the extended Carter Family, including A.P., Sara, and Maybelle. As Mazor recounts, A.P. "ruefully" remarked that many there might have forgotten the original Carter Family name, as they proceeded to perform several songs together.
DVD Review: Carter Family Album
Summary: 5 Stars
It is an outstanding collection. You have this one you have it all records and photos of the Carter Family.DVD Review: The Carter Family "Will the Circle be Unbroken" DVD
Summary: 4 Stars
THIS IS A GREAT DOCUMENTARY DVD ABOUT THE CARTER FAMILY AROUND THE LATE 1920'S AND THE 1930'S AND LATER. THE CARTER FAMILY CONSISTS OF A.P.CARTER, HIS WIFE SARA, AND SARA'S COUSIN MAYBELLE. THEY ARE FROM "POOR VALLEY" NEAR "CLINCH" MOUNTAIN IN VIRGINIA, NEAR THE TENNESSEE BORDOR. During August, 1927, a Mr.Pierce (a talent scout from the Victor Talking Machine Company) set up a "make-shift" recording studio in Bristol, Tenn. He was auditioning musicians from the region, so he could select some musicians for record contracts. The Carter Family auditioned, and were granted a record deal. Also, around this time period, Jimmie Rodgers (from Meridian, Miss.) auditioned and was selected also. These early (late 1920's) Bristol, Tenn. recording sessions of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers became known as the "BIG BANG" or the "Foundation" of Country Music!!!
THE CARTER FAMILY BECAME THE "FIRST FAMILY OF COUNTRY MUSIC" AND JIMMIE RODGERS BECAMDE THE "FATHER OF COUNTRY MUSIC"!!!!
THIS DVD CONTAINS COMENTARIES FROM MARTY STUART, GILLIAN WELCH, JOAN BAEZ, AND OTHERS INCLUDING FAMILY MEMBERS.
CARTER FAMILY MUSIC IS PLAYED DURING MOST OR AT LEAST SOME OF THE DVD!
THIS DVD IS EXCELLENT ARCHIVAL "AMERICAN ROOTS" MUSIC MATERIAL!!! THE CARTER FAMILY ALONG WITH JIMMIE RODGERS LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR THE GENRE OF COUNTRY MUSIC!
THE CARTER FAMILY ARE FAMOUS FOR SUCH SONGS AS "KEEP ON THE SUNNY SIDE", "WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN", "WILDWOOD FLOWER", "WORRIED MAN BLUES" AND "NO DEPRESSION IN HEAVEN". THEY DREW UPON FOLK MUSIC THEY SAW PERFORMED IN AND AROUND THE APPALACHIA REGION. THEIR MUSIC WAS VERY POPULAR DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930'S. RAIDO STATIONS LOVED PLAYING THEIR MUSIC AROUND THIS PERIOD OF TIME.
The record company was paying $50.00 per record that the Carter Family could come up with. So, A.P. teamed up with a black man and they traveled throughout the Appalachia regions searching out folk songs for A.P. to perfect and to record as the Carter Family for the record company.
A.P. would write down the words and the black man would remember the tune or the rhythm of the song. Then A.P. would "refine" and "re-work" the song and put it in writing. This resulted in 100's of songs with the Carter Family name and copyright on them.
THIS DVD CONTAINS SOME OF THE OLD FOOTAGE AND PICTURES OF THE CARTER FAMILY TRIO, BUT NOT VERY MUCH. HOWEVER, THE FOOTAGE THAT IS IN THE DVD IS GREAT ARCHIVAL MATERIAL. IT DOES CONTAIN SOME GOOD AUDIO RECORDINGS OF THE CARTER FAMILY. YOU DO GET FOOTAGE OF MATERIAL TO BACKUP THE DOCUMENTARY STORY! THE DVD CONTAINS EXCELLENT RE-CREATED FOOTAGE DEPICTING THE CARTER FAMILY PERFORMING AND RE-CREATED FOOTAGE TO BACKUP SOME OF THE DOCUMENTARY STORIES. IT HAS EXCELLENT SCENERY OF THE APPALACHIA REGION, CLINCH MOUNTAIN AND "POOR VALLEY".
YOU GET A STORY OF THEIR LIFE, WHICH INCLUDED HARDSHIPS LIKE OTHER FAMILIES. A.P. CARTER'S WIFE LEFT HIM AND MOVED TO CALIFORNIA WITH A.P.'S COUSIN. HOWEVER, SHE DID RETURN TO SING AND RECORD WITH A.P. AND MAYBELLE, BECAUSE THEIR MUSIC WAS IN SUCH HIGH DEMAND!!! SARE EVEN ENDED UP BEING BURIED IN THE SAME CEMETERY AS A.P. ONLY 2 ROWS AWAY. A.P. AND SARA HAD SEVERAL CHILDREN. SOME ARE INTERVIEWED IN THIS DVD.
MOTHER MAYBELLE (ORIGINALLY MAYBELLE ADDINGTON) MARRIED A CARTER MAN (ONE OF A.P.'S COUSINS), AND BECAME MAYBELLE CARTER. SHE CONTINUED THE TRADITON OF THE CARTER FAMILY WITH HER AND HER DAUGHTERS (THE MOST FAMOUS ONE BEING JUNE CARTER WHO MARRIED JOHNNY CASH).
THERE IS GREAT BONUS MATERIAL, WHICH INCLUDES: THE CARTER SCRATCH (THIS IS MOTHER MAYBELLE'S UNIQUE GUITAR PLAYING STYLE), AND MOTHER MAYBELE'S GUITAR (THIS GUITAR IS ON DISPLAY AT THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME - I'VE SEEN IT!). THE GUITAR IN AMERICAN MUSIC, AND THE CARTER FAMILY FOLD - A WHOLESOME FAMILY EXPERIENCE. THERE IS A NEAR COMPLETE PERFORMANCE OF MAYBELLE CARTER PERFORMING AND PLAYING HER GUITAR IN THIS BONUS MATERIAL.
OVERALL, THIS IS GREAT "AMERICAN ROOTS" AND GREAT "AMERICAN MUSIC" ARCHIVAL MATERIAL!!! IF YOU'RE INTO THIS KINDA STUFF, THEN I THINK YOU'LL LIKE THIS DVD, JUST DON'T EXPECT SOME GREAT PERFORMANCE VIDEO, BECAUSE IT ONLY HAS LIMITED AMOUNTS. IN THIS CONTEXT, I DO HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS DVD!!! I LOVE "AMERICAN MUSIC" HISTORY!!!
DVD Review: Will The Circel Be Unbroken?
Summary: 4 Stars
I have reviewed the various CD'd put out by the Carter Family, that is work of the original grouping of A.P., Sara and Maybelle, elsewhere in this space. Many of the thoughts expressed there apply here, as well. The recent, now somewhat eclipsed, interest in the mountain music of the 1920's and 30's highlighted in such films as The Song Catcher and Brother, Where Art Thou, of necessity, had to create a renewed interest in the Carter Family. Why? Not taking the influence of that family's musical shaping of mountain music is like neglecting the influence of Bob Dylan on the folk music revival of the 1960's. I suppose it can be done but a big hole is left in the landscape.
What this PBS production has done, and done well, is put the music of the Carters in perspective as it relates to their time, their religious sentiments and their roots in the seemingly simple mountain lifestyle. Is there any simpler harmony than Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Nevertheless, these gentle mountain folk were as driven to success, especially A.P, as any urbanite of the time. Moreover, they seem, and here again A.P. is the example, to have had as many interpersonal problems (in short, marital difficulties) as us city folk.
I have mentioned elsewhere, and it bears repeating here, that this fundamentalist religious sentiment expressed throughout their work does not have that same razor-edged feel that we find with today's evangelicals. This is a very personal kind of religious expression. These people took their beating during the Scopes Trial era and turned inward. Fair enough. That they also produced some very simple and interesting music is the product of that withdrawal. Listen.
DVD Review: Three Cheers For the Carter Family
Summary: 5 Stars
The Carters, along with Jimmy Rodgers, are the true heroes of pure country music. The so called evolution into the electrified contemporary offerings by sequined faux country performers is comparable to the moving of melodious music into acid rock.
Music by the Carter Family deserves to be in the collection of anyone who values our heritage.
Description of The Carter Family - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
This documentary explores the lives of A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter, starting with their childhood in Poor Valley, Virginia, and following their story through 1943, when they stopped playing and recording together. The film features rarely seen family photographs, memorabilia and archival footage that chronicles the life and music of this famous and influential trio. Academy Award? Winner Robert Duvall narrates.General DVDs
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