Maybelle & Sara Carter Sweet Fern

[1952banjo]

oh this is so nice!!! love it!

[coolanddark]

@haralaboskes lol! Im a capotalist but I know a great song to! see! commys and money grubers have something in common! there is hope after all!

[coolanddark]

I love mother Maybelles smile. If she is not the sexiest woman who ever walked the earth than I dont know who is. great song!

[maruku86]

I prefer Maybelle as an entertainer/artist, but Sara kicks some real country *ss when it comes to singing. Plus, Maybelle's voice never sound as sweet as when she does harmony together with Sara.

Thanks for uploading!

[MedusaMagic]

Wow, how awesome! I sing this all the time- thanks for posting the clip. ;o)

[rshdrumlinefreak]

Who else thinks this song is about WWI? "I know he's away, in a far distant land, a land that is over the sea" "Tell him to come back to me" "Is he thinking of me and the promise he made long ago" "He said he'd return from over the sea, oh why do the years go so slow?"

Maybe a song about a soldier who left his wife behind to go to WWI and either died, missing in action, or married a foreigner .

Just some thoughts, this song DID come out in the late 20's I believe. February 1929 apparently.

[yarnshala]

Mother Maybelle's voice is so sweet here.

[evankerry]

...I'll be just as happy as you...

[dabluz1125]

This is a truly historic moment and there are people walking in the background completely oblivious...amazing

[aenoch75]

pure gold

[coolanddark]

This is mesmerizing! Incredible song and performances by Sara and Mabelle

[meplayin]

So I guess those people who own the copyright on The Wilburn Brothers Show that Maybelle and Sara were on will keep it to them self and never let the world see how great this women were. They should shear and show. That's what music is for.

[skeetabix36]

Sara n Maybelle = Legends!! Fantastic. I wish the footage from the Wilburn Brothers show was still on youtube.Does anyone know why its not on here anymore.I miss it

[baasting]

I agree with you! I miss those clips from the Wilburn Brothers show too! It is the damns copyright shit.. Who cares about copyright, when we can watch two amazing ladies as Maybelle and Sara!?

[pedigofarm]

I agree,Little Moses was my favriot song out of THAT show.

[rshdrumlinefreak]

Its ironic you say that about copyrighting. AP Carter copyrighted everything he could get his hands on, whether he wrote it or not.  He knew he could make so major bucks that way.

[rshdrumlinefreak]

@rshdrumlinefreak Let me clarify this. Before this time, and even during it, music copyrighting was not popular. AP Carter didn't copy peoples music to steal it, he just did it to start up a type of business for himself. Many people in the country music scene used each others music. Elvis used lots of other peoples songs and made them his own. It wasn't viewed as being negative or stealing back then.

[Aprenticewoodspoiler]

Maybelle is beutifull

[cherokeehippie]

I AGREE!!

[sanjac1836]

WOW!!! Thanks for posting this!

[ladyblue614]

I LOVE THIS ONE TOO!

[carlbee32]

Thanks

lets meetup! MK

[MAXAX03]

Maybelle also played the hawaiian guitar (with a slide). In a recording session she once forgot her bottle neck to record "Meet me by the moonlight" and took instead of it Sara's perfume bottle - and she pressed so hard it broke and the room was flowed with her fragrance;)

Her daughter Janette often told this story about the recording of this song.

Maybelle also used it on

"Little Darling".

[DottyWang]

There are a number of evidently mangled words in the Carter's work, notably of course "Wildwood Flower". I doubt if it would be AP's doing and most likely it was from the singers he met. He was right, surely, in not changing what he heard, which would make it even harder to determine the base version, if there were one. Wildwood Flower was a composed song, so there are right words to it, which are now known. The Carters are never wrong, just themselves.

[bodine69]

mother maybelle is the greastest along with ap in country music history.

[frailer2007]

Actually, Maybelle would use on the classic recordings, either the finger & thumb (with or without picks on both) or a straight pick.

"Dixie Darling" is a good example of her straight pick use.

[shawndalakiddio]

lol, honestly i did not know there was any other way to pick.

[dtoddmiller]

Maybelle pioneered her own methods for picking the guitar.

[Jesuphile]

The motivation was to get as much sound of the instrument as possible. This was subtle genius. Peer was a businessman and I think that besides their talent, he saw steady earning potential. Records with a larger band or orchestra cost more. Common people could afford to hear the Carter Family, and that they did.

[BanjoBoyMatteo]

Ain't this great! I first heard this song from the Carters, and then Vern Williams. Of course, both versions are great!

[whuduhheck]

Back during the early days A.P. and Mother Maybelle(The Carter Family), and Jimmie Rodgers were the first country music supersters. Back when a dollar was a days wage, people would spend a dime on a 78 rpm ( like a 45 but bigger-a single).

[m4ndrew]

Great! Thanks so much for posting, does anyone out there have Sara & Maybelle singing Little Moses, in the late 60s?

[agingstoner]

Little Moses was on Youtube until a few months ago, then removed evidentally for copyright infringement. Which is infuriating....it's not the type of thing that should be stored in a basement someplace. If you don't want the public to see it for free, then release it on CD, I say.

[fiddlenut24]

i totally agree, i've been looking for it. i cant understand why someone would want to keep that from music fans

[m4ndrew]

Yes, it was - I listened to it many times, and was very disappointed to see it was removed. I'm surprised its not on CD somewhere, I'm searching - and hope to find it, its a rare jewel indeed.

[wmoday]

If you are able to find it, the clip was from the Wilburn Brother show. I have a copy but have yet to figure out how to post here. Have played it on stage for years learned it as a child in SE Kentucky.

[debaclebear]

I had seen it on youtube, along with another clip from the Wilburn Brothers show. I am terribly dissapointed that they removed them from the viewing public. I haven't seen as good a rendition of Little Moses on youtube since. I wish they would allow it again.

[MAXAX03]

simply GREAT - Sara with her guitaro - Unique.

THANKS also here in germany well known

GREAT THEY DID IT!

[wmoday]

To our German cousins, thank you for keeping alive the Carter Family music. Many of the best items I have collected were produced in Germany and there is no finer collection than the one from the Bear Family Records in Germany "The Carter Family, in the Shadow of Clinch Mountain".

[wildwoodpicker]

ja, sie sind sehr gut

die carter familie ist menine lieblingsmusik.

[skankspankr]

that's Maybelle playing guitar. Great guitarist! All the Carter's were/are incredibly talented.

[agingstoner]

What's amazing is that so many people claim that Maybelle was a "flatpicker", when there's so much evidence, like this, that indicates otherwise.

[skankspankr]

I agree. I'm pretty sure I've seen her using a pick. I wouldnt call her a flatpicker, her style's not like that at all. Her style's been called the "Carter scratch".

[1972Suburban]

She did use a pick quite often, she played rhythm on most of the recordings with Helen on accordian, Anita on bass and Chet Atkins on guitar...I think....in the Cannonball blues video you can see the pick in between the strings on the end of her guitar.

[agingstoner]

Yes, I know she used a flat pick later in her career. But in her classic work with the original Carter Family (AP, Sara, and herself) she almost always used the thumb pick (or bare thumb) and fingers. It's almost impossible to play those solos otherwise.

[habdon]

wow maybelle was nice looking women.seems happier here than in other vedeoes of her.

[banjomansmate]

Another nugget of pure gold! My thanks go to the genius who had the idea of putting this on YouTube, which is now my tiptop favourite website 'cos it can produce something as precious as this.

[waldviertelbaer]

Also here in Europe these two wonderful Ladies are well known. For me as a fan of Country Music it is absolutely awesome to see that. I collected all I could lay my hands on of the Carter Family and seeing these two wonderful Icons of Music here equals watching the Johann Strauss performing live his "Blue Danube Waltz" for me. Thank you a LOT!

[seancoxen]

Thanks agingstoner for defending Sara. Yes, in her prime, Sara was a great beauty. She had the "regal" look, folks in the valley would say. Viewers of this video should know that Sara was 11 years older than Maybelle and lived a MUCH harder life.

[DrGibbleson]

It's true that Sara was quite a 'looker' in her youth. Also true that she was 11 years older than Maybelle, and had lived a harder life. And yet Maybelle passed away a year before Sara.

Thanks very much for uploading this. Its a real treat to watch.

[Pickinbuddy]

Country Music begins HERE!

[jackrodgrs]

beautiful, nice to see those oldies and goodies just cant imaging how they LIVED way back than compare to todays world...

[mrjop1975]

I really enjoy this footage of Sara and Maybelle. If it hadn't been for these 2 talented women, some of the old standards that we all learnt to play when we took up guitar (and for me the autoharp as well) would simply have not existed.

I think Maybelle looked very happy to be singing and playing with her cousin Sara. From what I've read they always kept in close contact, and enjoyed each others company. So maybe that is why she looks genuinly happy here.

JOP

[wildwoodpicker]

as an autoharpist myself, i completely agree.

[divita711]

I am so happy to see these- you have no idea. Maybelle seems happier in the earlier recordings- by the 60s her happiness looks like an act for the cameras. I wonder what was going on...Maybelle is far and away the prettier of the two, but Sarah is a true mountain woman, buckteeth, banjo, homespun gown and all.

[steveedo]

I believe this and Cannonball Blues was filmed by John Cohen (of the New Lost City Ramlers) in 1967.

[rotano]

This nothing less than blows my mind every time I see it. Rare you can find such pure music anywhere. THis clip was shown at the end of a documentary on the Carter Family. Wish there was more.

[hotdog142wq]

Unfortunate that radio doesnt play this kind of music often - it'd be a better place to live - today's "country" music is so empty

[daveythewavey19]

This brings me to tears, amazing. I love them so much. Read the carter family biography, its a great book and so telling about the family.

[Nightshade75]

the carter family always brings me to tears and I can scarce explain why. This video was electrifying. I wish they would have included the rest of the very last song "bury me beneath the weeping willow". Sarah Carter rocks.yay!

[lkb3rd]

sara carter would have never made it today. She's not "hot". Thank god for the old days. Maybelle was hot

[agingstoner]

Actually, Sara was quite "hot" when she was younger...she bore sort of a resemblance to Andee McDowell, who would be a good choice to play her in a movie. Unfortunately, she was a life-long chain smoker. Ladies, be warned!

[SteerforthBinoculars]

FYI this song was originally "Sweet Bird". I mention it because the words make more sense that way. By the time A.P. got hold of it, it had morphed into Sweet Fern. This video is magical. Thanks for putting it up!

[frankrot]

this is unbelieveable. never expected to see them sing together.

[Hankster60]

Fans invited to join The Carter Family Yahoo Music Group:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com­/group/TheCarterFamilyMusic/

[Hankster60]

Sara was the wife of A.P. Carter.

[eleot]

Can anyone please explain to me who is sara?

spare my ignorance.

Will appreciatte

[RudiMayr]

Sara was the main singer of the original Carter Family, and she was a great singer, pure talent. Maybelle was great too, but without Sara they would never have recorded.

[threatis]

holy shit, watching Sara sing is just....wow.

[jul150]

Wow. I repeat-WOW

[WkndHack]

Astonishing, wow! I've been dying to find some footage of Maybelle playing. I love Sara and AP too. Anyway, I'm stunned and blown away. Thank you!

[newoldtymer]

just incredible, thank you!