Helen Carter on the mandolin

[Bernie Daniel]

I'm a huge Carter Family fan and I think Helen was my favorite -- sure Anita was a better singer -- but Helen also had a fine voice and in addition she was a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, autoharp, accordion, and banjo).

She also played mandolin. Here is "Helen's Mandolin Rag, a cut off her 1979 LP album "Here's for you mama".

Of all the three girls Helen was most devoted to keeping the Carter tradition alive. She is the only one who learned to do Maybelle's "Carter scratch" on the guitar. Here she is on a mandolin tune she wrote herself.

[Willie Poole]

That tunes sounds a lot like "Ragtime Annie", I wonder which came first?

Willie

[Mike Snyder]

Chinese Breakdown

[Dave Reiner]

Chinese Breakdown

+1

[Bernie Daniel]

Chinese Breakdown

I do hear some "Chinese Breakdown" and also some "Ragtime Annie" in her picking. That was 1979 so the availability of on-line searches and YouTube and digital music were not available then. So people relied on memory. Maybe was a tune she developed from her subconscious memory of hearing those other tunes?

Here is what Fiddler's Companion says about Chinese Breakdown:

CHINESE BREAKDOWN [1]. AKA and see "Georgia Bust-Down," "Georgia Breakdown." Old-Time, Breakdown; Canadian, Reel. USA; New Hampshire, Va., Alabama, Arkansas. D Major (Messer, Miskoe & Paul, Phillips). Standard. AABB (Messer): AA'BB' (Miskoe & Paul). The tune was recorded from Ozark Mountain fiddlers by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph for the Library of Congress in the early 1940's. Sources for notated versions: Kyle Creed (southwestern Va.) [Brody]; Lyman Enloe [Phillips]; Arthur Mitchell (Concord, N.H.) via Omer Marcoux [Miskoe & Paul]. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 19, pg. 20. Miskoe & Paul (Omer Marcoux), 1994; pg. 22. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 49. Alcazar Dance Series ALC 202, Sandy Bradley - "Potluck and Dance Tonite!" (1979). Brunswick 221 (78 RPM), Jack Reedy & His Walker Mountain String Band (reissued on "Music From The Lost Provinces"). County 762, Lyman Enloe- "Fiddle Tunes I Recall." Decca 5069 (78 RPM) {1934}, The Stripling Brothers (Ala.). Folkways FA 2492, The New Lost City Ramblers- "String Band Instrumentals" (1964. Learned from Earl Scrugg's older brother, Junie, and altered from then). Fretless 136, The Arm and Hammer String Band- "Stay on the Farm." Marimac 9000, Dan Gellert & Shoofly - "Forked Deer" (1986. "Inspired by an old McGee Brothers record"). Okeh 45103 (78 RPM), Scottdale String Band. QRS 9010, Hoke Rice. Rebel 1545, Curly Ray Cline- "Why Me Ralph?" Rural Records RRCF 252 (1970), Curly Fox (Ga.). Romeo 5345/Conqueror 8241 (78 RPM), Carolina Ramblers String Band. Rounder 1133/1134, Ed Hayley - "Grey Eagle, Vol. 2" (a four-part version). Voyager 340, Jim Herd - "Old Time Ozark Fiddling." Victor Records (78 RPM), the Skillet Lickers (1934).

[Willie Poole]

I know quite a few songs that were "altered" by pickers and called by another name, Reno and Don Stover did that a lot, some played the same song but in a different key just to make it sound different, a little "trick" that I use some of the time myself....

Willie

[Bernie Daniel]

I know quite a few songs that were "altered" by pickers and called by another name, Reno and Don Stover did that a lot, some played the same song but in a different key just to make it sound different, a little "trick" that I use some of the time myself.... Willie

I agree and it's OK to use an existing tune like "Ragtime Annie" (that is "traditional" i,e., no one knows who wrote it) as the way to get to a new tune -- that is called folk music.

Even some of Bill Monroe's tunes are similar to earlier traditional tunes from Scotland or Ireland or even American old time and they must have inspired him.

I just think it is interesting to know that folks like Helen Carter who was a performing member of really the first family of country music, also played the mandolin. Another example like that is Joni Mitchell who played the mandocello!