Guitar Heroines: Maybelle Carter

Written by archtop girl on Thursday, 12 November 2009

  Pictured here on the left of brother-in-law AP and cousin Sara, Maybelle Carter "may very well be the single most important influence on American folk guitar that ever was", according to vintage guitar guru George Gruhn, who brokered the sale of her famous Gibson L5 in 2004.

Maybelle Carter (born in Virginia in 1909) developed a distinctive finger-picking style inspired by the 'frailing' of old-time banjo players, whereby her thumb picked out a melody line on the lower strings and her other fingers strummed a rhythm. In a band without a bass player, this added bottom-end depth to the sound, and was an early example of a guitar taking a lead or melody role, rather than being used purely as a rhythmic backing.  She was a dab hand with a banjo and autoharp, too, often bringing the latter on-stage with her son-in-law Johnny Cash.

And her Gibson? The 1928 L5, said to have been used in all Carter Family recordings till her death in 1978, was bought for $575,000 by a Tennessean philanthropist who promptly returned it to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville where it had been on display for many years.

Carter explains her technique in an archive interview with America's wonderful NPR (National Public Radio) network, linked here at honkytonks.org , and there's loads of YouTube footage whereby you can check out that innovative thumb action.