Maybelle Carter

"Mother" Maybelle Carter (born Maybelle Addington; May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument."

It was named after her.

She was born Maybelle Addington on May 10, 1909, in Nickelsville, Virginia, the daughter of Margaret Elizabeth (née Kilgore; 1879–1960) and Hugh Jackson Addington (1877–1929).

She was a member of the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s and a member of the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group.

Her most obscure style was utilized on a few recordings by the Original Carter Family in the 1920s and early 1930s.

It may be described as a Hawaiian-influenced slide technique that sometimes sounded like a modern dobro.

Finally, if other musicians were playing a lead instrument, Maybelle would often strum chords on the guitar to accompany them.

On March 13, 1926, Maybelle married Ezra Carter.

They had three daughters, Helen, June, and Anita.

She was a member of the Carter Family, formed in 1927 by her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter, who was married to her cousin Sara, also a part of the trio.

The Carter Family was one of the first commercial rural country music groups.

Maybelle helped create the group's unique sound with her innovative style of guitar playing, using her thumb to play the melody on the bass strings and her index finger to fill out the rhythm.

Her technique, sometimes known as the Carter Scratch, influenced the guitar's shift from rhythm to lead instrument.

Carter recorded her signature guitar piece, "Wildwood Flower," on numerous occasions, beginning with the original 1928 version.

"The Cannon Ball," recorded with the Original Carter Family in 1930, illustrates Carter's fingerpicking style with thumb/bass fill.

Her final recording in the slide guitar style was "My Old Cottage Home" in 1931.

Maybelle once filled in for Jimmie Rodgers during a recording session, perfectly mimicking his guitar playing style, in 1932.

Rodgers was ill with tuberculosis at that time and had waning stamina during the session.

Maybelle and her daughters toured from the 1940s through the 1960s as "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle," but after the death of A. P. Carter in 1960, the group revived the name "The Carter Family."

The Grand Ole Opry community of the early 1950s widely respected her, a matriarchal figure in country music circles who was popularly known as "Mother Maybelle."

However, she was only in her forties.

She briefly reunited with former Carter Family member Sara Carter during the 1960s folk music craze, with Sara singing lead and Maybelle providing harmony as before in their 1966 reunion album.

Carter made occasional solo recordings during the 1960s and 1970s, usually full-length albums.

They frequently toured with Johnny Cash, her son-in-law, from 1968 on.

The group performed regularly on Cash's weekly network variety show from 1969 to 1971.

Maybelle was also featured on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

Her final such work, a two-record set released on Columbia Records, placed on Billboard's best-selling country albums chart in 1973 when she was 64.

Carter died in 1978 after a few years of poor health and was interred next to her husband, Ezra, in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Two of their daughters – Helen and Anita – are buried nearby.

According to statements made by Carter during a transcribed public performance, she began studying guitar at age 13 when she acquired an instrument.

She is often cited as a pioneering musician, being both an early female guitarist with national exposure and one of the first to use the guitar as a lead instrument in country music.

Writers have identified at least three or four styles played by Maybelle Carter.

She often tuned her guitar down, sometimes as many as five frets, but sometimes used a capo to increase the instrument's range.

Her most famous and widely recorded style is sometimes called "the Carter Scratch," or "thumb-lead style."

This technique involved playing a melody on the instrument's three bass strings while strumming the three treble strings for rhythm.

She used thumb and finger picks while playing.

Another style, later popularized by other musicians, was essentially the reverse of the thumb-lead style.

In this style, Carter fingerpicked a melody on the three treble strings while brushing a rhythm on the bass strings with her thumb.

It is often said that she first saw this style played by African American musician Lesley Riddle.

A third style of Carter's guitar playing involved rapid flatpicking in a country blues rhythm.