The Carter Family - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
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Actor: David McCullough, David Ogden Stiers, Joe Morton, Liev Schreiber, Linda HuntBrand: Paramount
Producer: Katy Mostoller
Producer: Michael Rossi
Producer: Rocky Collins
Writer: Rocky Collins
Producer: Tracy Heather Strain
Writer: Henry Hampton
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 60 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Pbs Paramount
DVD Reviews of The Carter Family - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
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.
DVD Review: A must have.........
Summary: 5 Stars
Nice DVD to own for a rare insight into the Carter Family. Not the best or longest, but it's all we have. Go get it.
DVD Review: The "Best" Carter Family Documentary, If Only Because It Is The Only One! Interesting But Incomplete.
Summary: 4 Stars
THE CARTER FAMILY: WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN is an interesting DVD documentary from PBS, but it really could have easily been made better. As it is, it is still the only documentary available on DVD, and it is quite interesting.
It fits well as a companion piece to the book WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I'M GONE? by Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirshberg. Zwonitzer appears frequently throughout this DVD.
This DVD is about 50 minutes long, with about 19 minutes of bonus material. They use actors to recreate some scenes, but they should have marked these scenes as "recreations." Too often they show old, generic footage, or recreations, without captioning it as stock footage or recreations. If you didn't know better, you might think you were seeing the actual, original Carter Family in action, but you're not.
There is NO actual moving pictures of the original Carter Family on the DVD, though Maybelle and Sara appear too briefly in b/w TV and moving film footage, presumably from the 1950's (Maybelle on TV, playing some of "Wildwood Flower") and in the 1960s, (Sara and Maybelle, elderly but still sounding great, standing around outside, playing "Sweet Fern" for the camera, appearing as the credits rollover the picture at the end of the DVD).
It is really frustrating that they did not include these two songs as DVD bonuses, in a COMPLETE song version! Especially since the rest of the DVD uses only still photos of the three original Carter Family members.
The DVD explains a lot about their lives before the music business, the formation of the group, and the business and cultural circumstances of their influential careers! I watched this DVD after finishing my reading of the book WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I'M GONE? and I very much enjoyed what is on this DVD. I just wish they had shared more of the live action footage that they had access to!
There are many still photos shown of A.P., Sara, and Maybelle which I had not seen before. The best quality photos come from an aborted LIFE MAGAZINE photo shoot for a cover story, which potentially would have boosted their careers, but was ill-timed and got bumped when the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor, and so the Carter story got pulled out, and was unfortunately never ran later!
The DVD tells the story of the strained marriage of A.P. and Sara, with a little more weight than what we are perhaps used to in 2006. I grew up in a family shattered by divorce, and I take too much of that grief for granted, maybe most of the Western culture does, since it seems to have happened to nearly everybody's family. Perhaps we really should recognize A.P. and Sara's failed marriage as the family tragedy that it is, but it does sound strange to hear the divorce described as some huge tragedy unique to this very famous family. It is as if the music business chores destroyed their marriage, and A.P. could never had guessed the incredibly high price he would pay, with his broken marriage, to establish and maintain the Carter Family career.
Sara Carter comes off as one of the earliest "feminists" in the entertainment industry. They showcase a recreation of them recording "Single Girl, Married Girl," their first big hit, which has lyrics that envy the "freedom" of a single woman who can go have fun, while lamenting the responsibilties of a married mother and wife who envies the single girl. I don't applaud this sentiment, nor do I agree with it, but this is a fact that this was their first big hit, and an early feminist "anthem" of sorts, back in the late 1920's.
The DVD later shows how Sara pitches her marriage to an angry and unresponsive A.P., to have an affair with her husband's cousing, Coy Bayes, whom she would eventually marry, many lonely years later. A true family tragedy, yet all too common today. I wish it were a unique situation, but I grew up with that kind of situation in my parents marriage, too. It is heartbreaking.
The DVD extras last about 19 minutes and show people talking about Maybelle's guitar and her guitar playing techniques. They also show The Carter Fold, which is a weekly musical showcase hosted by the daughter of A.P. which is still going on today! Check it out!
If you are a serious Carter Family fan, then you will be happy to see this documentary, but you will likely wonder why they did not max out the possibilities when they had some really rare, great footage that went so underused in the final cut.
Besides the biography book, WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I'M GONE?, I can also highly recommend the CD collections from JSP Records, THE CARTER FAMILY 1927-1934, and THE CARTER FAMILY 1935-1941, which are the best and most comprehensive CD collections currently in print and available on amazon.com; VERY REASONABLY PRICED at about $25 per 5 CD set (which is about $5 per CD). Both sets feature 5 CDs that are completely loaded with just about every thing that the original Carter Family recorded in the studio during their 15 year career. These CDs sound pretty good (allowing for how PRIMITIVE these 80 year old original recordings are, from the dawn of the music industry as we know it), and they are the easiest way to get nearly all the Carter Family's music quickly (and before these go out of print, too, so hurry up and get yours).
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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