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Various Artists - Unbroken Circle

About.com Rating four out of Five

From Kathy Coleman, for About.com

Various Artists - Unbroken Circle

Various Artists - Unbroken Circle

The Bottom Line

The impact the Carter Family has had on American Roots music can be felt in every genre of pure American music from country to blues to folk to rock. Their clean-lined mountain music echoes through the ages with a clarity and truth which time has not dimmed in the slightest. Their songs retain a glorious beauty that time can only polish to a greater shine. Each of the songs on this disc are sung with that same wondrous simplicity by artists renown in country and folk.
Pros
  • "Engine One-Forty-Three"
  • "Never Let The Devil Get The Upper Hand Of You"
  • "On The Sea Of Galilee"
Cons
  • None.

Description

  • 15 of A.P. Carter's finest songs, demonstrating his amazing breadth and depth as a songwriter.
  • Artists such as George Jones, Johnny Cash, The Whites, Willie Nelson, and others appear.
  • A salute to a heritage which should never be forgotten if real country music is to survive.

Guide Review - Various Artists - Unbroken Circle

In the late 1920's, A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and his brother's wife Maybelle came together to make music as The Carter Family. A.P. was an amazing songwriter of tremendous heart and glorious ability; Sara could sing the birds from the trees; and Maybelle could play a guitar like no one else. Together, their career spanned a little over two decades and nearly 300 recordings. Maybelle became the matriarch of a great country music dynasty as the mother of the Carter Sisters. Today there are Carters in the very veins of country music, their voices as eternal as the music their parents gave the world. Here on this disc, a mere 15 of the best of those songs are performed by some of the greatest names in music.

Produced by Mother Maybelle's grandson John Carter Cash, who lovingly handles these venerable recordings, it contains the voices of Emmylou Harris, George Jones, The Whites, Rosanne Cash, Del McCoury, and Kris Kristofferson, as well as musicians such as Randy Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Tim O'Brien, and the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band. This is an old sound, but wholly timeless nonetheless-- mountain music, real country, roots, No Depression. Call it what you will. Mostly, it's truthful, emotional, and vibrantly alive.

The Carter Family made it possible for people everywhere to relate to country music. A.P. Carter's powerful lyrics will live forever, and it's recordings such as this which will make these wonderful songs accessible to a new generation of country music fans.

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