The Carter Sisters, (also known as the second version ofThe Carter Family) were an American band consisting ofMaybelle Carter and her daughtersJune Carter Cash,Helen Carter, andAnita Carter. Each played an instrument, with June being a pioneer as a front-man. Formed during World War II, the group recorded and performed into the 1990s. Maybelle and Ezra named the band "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" and recorded under that title for 2 record labels RCA and Columbia. Maybelle wanted her daughters to be the face of the band.

In the 1920s through the early 1940s, Maybelle Carter was part of the historic country music trio The Carter Family with her cousinSara Carter and Sara's husbandA. P. Carter. Maybelle's contribution to the group was singing harmony to Sara's lead vocal as well as playing guitar, lead and rhythm at the same time. Maybelle was married to A.P.'s brother Ezra Carter and had three daughters: June, Helen, and Anita.

In March 1943, when the originalCarter Family trio stopped recording together after theirWBT-AM contract ended, Maybelle Carter formed "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" with her three daughters, who had frequently appeared with The Carter Family on their radio broadcasts of the late 1930s. When this new act began, June was 14, Helen was 16, and Anita was 10. Like any mother would Maybelle wanted her daughters to be the face of the group as they were young but growing. Their band would record under the title "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle starting in 1949 on the RCA label and starting in 1952 on the Columbia label.

The group was said to have been a mix of traditional songs of the original Carter Family with pop, gospel, and vaudeville comedy. Each daughter made her own contribution to the band.

• Helen: vocals, guitar, and accordion
• Anita: vocals, guitar, and bass fiddle
• June: vocals, autoharp, guitar, banjo, dance, and comedy (she could carry a tune but struggled with pitch problems and soon began to focus more on her comedic addition to the group.)

The group (originally fromPoor Valley, Virginia) made their first move toRichmond, Virginia in 1943. (They were reported as having kept their travel low key, with their father Ezra driving the group in a van to and from their destinations.) The new group first aired on radio stationWRNL in Richmond on June 1, 1943. This broadcast would serve as their first commercially sponsored program and their first radio debut as "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle." The girls' next big break was offered to them by "Sunshine Sue" ofWRVA-AM. In September 1946 the group was asked to be a part ofThe Old Dominion Barn Dance on WRVA. The show had just begun and started small; however, by the end of its first year, it was selling out its 1,400-seat theater twice a night, every Saturday. The group soon became a headliner for the show. Having spent five years in Richmond, the girls were yet again offered a job opportunity, this time inKnoxville, Tennessee.

In 1948, towards the end of their time in Richmond, the girls were offered the chance to work forWNOX-AM in Knoxville. They accepted and were then played on both the evening show,Tennessee Barn Dance; and the daily show,Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round. In Knoxville, they met and began working with guitarist,Chet Atkins.

Now known as The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle with Chet Atkins, the group released its first record on February 2, 1949, produced in Atlanta, Georgia throughRCA Victor Records. The group recorded many singles in the 1950s. The sisters also individually released occasional single records but none of their recordings in this era were particularly successful, despite their fame and popularity as a concert act.

Offered a radio show atSpringfield, Missouri'sKWTO, the group, along with Atkins left Knoxville. They worked as a popular addition at KWTO in 1949 and 1950.

In June 1950 the group was offered a job at theGrand Ole Opry inNashville, Tennessee. They accepted and their performances became some of their most famous and valued work. They performed with famous names such asElvis Presley,Carl Smith (June's husband at the time),Ernest Tubb, andJohnny Cash and spent roughly ten years working the Grand Ole Opry as well as on various other radio broadcasts. They became members of the Opry in the early 1950s.^[1] June also began making frequent solo performances in concert and on television during this era.

After A.P. Carter's death in 1960, Maybelle officially renamed the girls' group "The Carter Family" after the original act. In 1963 The Carter Family began working as part of the Johnny Cash road show. During this period, all four members of the group occasionally recorded as solo artists. June and Helen released a number of singles; Anita had several chart records and hit duets with bothHank Snow on "Bluebird Island" and withWaylon Jennings on "I Got You". She and Snow released an album of duets on RCA Records. June would later have a solo hit in 1971 with "A Good Man." She and Cash eventually began a relationship (initially extramarital); both divorced their spouses in 1966 and married in 1968) and went on to record several hits with him. Maybelle Carter recorded a number of solo albums, mostly instrumental performances, and in 1967 reunited withSara Carter for an album ofold-timey music titled "Historic Reunion."

The act continued and actually enjoyed its greatest success in the early 1970s. June's marriage to Cash brought the Carter Sisters regular appearances on television'sThe Johnny Cash Show and the first major chart hit records of their career. In 1973, the act won "Favorite Country Vocal Group" on theAmerican Music Awards, a surprise victory over the more commercially successfulThe Statler Brothers (another group closely associated with Cash) andThe Osborne Brothers. Each of the sisters released LPs on various record labels as well as recording several albums of music as a group.

The second edition of The Carter Family released their last record, the 1977 single "Papa's Sugar" a year before Mother Maybelle's death. Helen and Anita continued to appear as part of "The Johnny Cash Show." In the mid and late 1980s, Anita, Helen, and their children briefly recorded as The Carter Family forAudiograph Records and laterMercury Records. June did not participate in these recordings although she remained close to her sisters. In the 1990s Anita's health issues limited her appearances with her sisters and she occasionally was replaced on some concert appearances by June's daughter Rosey.

In 1989 The Carter Sisters joinedThe Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for the recording of theirCountry Music Association's Album of the Year, the follow-upWill the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 2. In 1990, the album was celebrated on thePBS music television programAustin City Limits, which featured a performance by The Carter Sisters of "Keep on the Sunny Side" and with the full ensemble on the Carter Family song, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", from the original 1972 album.^[2]

The Carter Family receives special billing on the cover for their background vocals onMerle Haggard's 1971 albumThe Land of Many Churches.

Johnny Cash With Carter Family, The - The Three Bells (7", Promo)Columbia38-047401984

• Wolfe, Charles K. "Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters."Classic Country: Legends of Country Music. New York: London Routledge, 2001. 12-18. NetLibrary. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.
• Seemann, Charlie. "Review (untitled)."The Journal of American Folklore 111.442 (1998): 450-51. JSTOR. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.
• Anshaw, Carol, Sharon O'Brien, Gayle Pemberton, Emma Perez, Carole Maso, Ann E. Matter, Michele Wallace, Kate Daniels, Kathryn Stripling Byer, and Cynthia Hogue. "Listeners' Delight: Ten Writers Choose Their "Desert Island Disks"The Women's Review of Books 18.3 (2000): 10-12. JSTOR. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.
• Kahn, Ed. "The Carter Family on Border Radio." American Music 14.2 (1996): 205-17. JSTOR. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.
• Ratliff, Ben. "June Carter Cash, a Fixture In Country Music, Dies at 73."The New York Times 16 May 2003, A25 sec. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.
• Strauss, Neil. "Anita Carter, Country Singer, Is Dead at 66."The New York Times 2 Aug. 1999, A13 sec. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

• Vocal quartets
• American vocal groups
• Musical groups established in 1943
• Musical groups disestablished in the 1990s
• Grand Ole Opry members
• Cash–Carter family
• Carter Family songs
• 1943 establishments in Virginia
• 1990s disestablishments in Virginia
• Audiograph artists

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata