Helen Carter - Wildwood flower video free download

This version of Wildwood Flower is from Helen's album "This is for you mama", 1979. On the album it was called "Poor wildwood flower"

Helen was the eldest daughter of Mother Maybelle Carter and never got as much fame as her sisters June and Anita did.

She was a great singer and songwriter, she also played a lot of instruments and was very good at playing them.

Her songs have been recorded by people like: Johnny Cash, Jan Howard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jean Shepard, Wanda Jackson and many more..

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"It was always Mother Maybelle's wish that her oldest daughter, Helen, carry on the tradition of playing guitar in her style. Music has influenced Helen Carter's life since she was born. Maybe even before she was born, since Maybelle was 8 months pregnant with her when the original Carter Family's first recordings were made in August 1927.

Helen grew up in Maces spring, Virginia amid the continuous music making of her various uncles, cousins, neighbours and, of course A.P, Sara and Maybelle Carter.

At 6 years old she made her first attempts at music on a mandolin. The original Carter Family often took other family performers along on their appearances, and when she mastered "Chinese breakdown", young Helen went along too.

After a series of piano lessons, she started on the guitar at age 8. Maybelle taught her the basic cords and Uncle Doc Addington (Maybelle's brother) showed her how to move up on the neck. In 1939, Helen, her sisters Anita and June, and her cousin Janette moved to Del Rio, Texas to join the Original Carter Family as part of their broadcasts on radio station XERA. Mother Maybelle taught her 3 daughters 15 songs in preparation for Del Rio and, once there, it became Helen's responsibility to provide guitar accompaniment for their trios. Even then she was playing like her mother - - - doing solo instrumentals such as "Frankie & Johnny" and playing the breaks on songs "Beautiful brown eyes" and "Give me the roses while I live".

The family moved to radio station WBT in Charlotte, N.C. in 1941 and the younger Carters went along. When the Original Carter family retired in 1943. Maybelle decided to continue with her girls as "Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters". At this point Helen was put on accordian, June on autoharp and Anita on bass fiddle, leaving Maybelle to do all the guitar work. They quickly landed a job at WRLN in Richmond, Virginia and worked later on WRVA in Richmond, WNOX in Knoxville, Tennesse and KWTO in Springfield, Missouri before settling down in 1950 for 17 years at WSM's Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. In those 24 years on the radio, in fact, up to her mother's retirement in 1976, Helen never played guitar except as rhytm backup for her mother.

It has been said that, altough Mother Maybelle was small in stature, she cast a long shadow on American Music. With this album, her daughter is now beginning to emerge from 40 comfortable years in that shadow.

Helen carter is musically open minded. She's been exposed to a lot of different types of music: She grew up in a shape-note singing church, yet her parents both loved classical music, and she and her sisters found out that they had to learn all the popular songs of the 1940's and 50's in order to survive as a musical group.

Of her own playing, Helen has said, "I don't consciously try to play like mother, if I hear something else in there, I do it. But I was taught to play the melody, so people could recognize the song. I always watched Aunt Sara on rhytm; I learned to hook my thumb like her." Helen's memories of the old songs, her own musical tastes and her ingenuity all help shape her arrangements.

This album was recorded in the spring of 1978, several months before Maybelle Carter's death. Helen's 23 year old son, David Jones helped out with some fine acoustical guitar breaks and vocals. In attendance at one of the recording sessions, Mother Maybelle listened to her daughter pick "The Wildwood Flower" and smiled her approval.

Mother Maybelle is gone now. The tradition of etnich-country music she pioneered rests largely on her oldest daughter's shoulders. This daughter, Helen, is sincere in her attempts to carry on the family heritage. She only hopes, as she shares her special music with you, that her mother is still listening and still smiling."

(This text is from the backside of the album)