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W
hile the Carters often suf-
fered from a lack of suffi-
cient material possessions, they did
possess one treasured resource:
their ability to make music. At
home and at church, Dad, Mom, Lee
Brooks (her brother), and Nan Car-
ter Brooks (Dad's sister and Lee's
wife) sang as a quartet from ap-
proximately 1909 to 1914, in the
northern Texas area running
roughly from Grayson to Clay
County. Dad came out of a strong
Baptist background, and Mom was
a Nazarene, so they leaned rather
naturally toward religious music.
Their vocal style reflected the
Carters' training in the shape-note
singing schools that emphasized
four-part harmony and clearly
served as the model for the style of
the Chuck Wagon Gang. Mom
played the organ, and Lee, a singing
school teacher, bought all the
new paperback song books from
the Hartford, Trio, Vaughan, and
Stamps-Baxter gospel publishing
houses. The group often sat up all
night, learning and singing the new
songs.
Mom and Dad bequeathed their love
of music to their nine children (Clel-
lon, Ernest, Roy, Lola, Effie, Anna,
Ruth Ellen, Eddie, and Bettye). All of
the children sang and played various
instruments, and each of them, except
for Clellon, sang at one time or an-
other as members of the Chuck
Wagon Gang. Clellon, in fact, took
vocal lessons at the Stamps-Baxter
School of Music in Dallas, preparing
as a possible replacement for Ernest,
but never became a member of the
group. Dad and the children sang con-
stantly at home for their own and for
their neighbors' pleasure. These ca-
sual, ad hoc performances exempli-
fied the essence of parlor singing, and
probably typified the home entertain-
ment southwestern farm families en-
joyed during the World War I era and
on into the twenties. They sang old
songs learned in church or from
neighbors, from the paperback hym-
nals, from sheet music or songsters,
or from radio broadcasts accompa-
nied by a guitar or parlor organ or
perhaps, if one were more affluent, to
the chords of a piano. Old songs circu-
lated freely in rural Texas via the
'young people's page' of the 'Dallas
Semi-Weekly Farm News' where read-
ers exchanged song lyrics. Whatever
the source, the Carter children liter-
ally learned their songs, and how to
sing, at Mom's and Dad's knees. Rose
and Anna remembered as small chil-
dren taking turns sitting on Dad's lap,
listening to him sing their favorite
songs. As long as Dad lived, he re-
mained the principal arbiter of the
Chuck Wagon Gang style, often choos-
ing their songs and insisting that they
adhere to the vocal instructions
found in the songbooks.
Ernest, born on August 10, 1910, in
Tioga, Texas, but who became known
professionally as Jim, played the gui-
tar and sang bass; Dad played the
mandolin and sang baritone or low
tenor; Rose, born on December 31,
1914 in Gould, Oklahoma, sang so-
prano; and Anna, born on February
17, 1917, in Shannon, Texas, sang alto.
Together they achieved a serious, but
unaffected and uncluttered, style that
endured throughout their profes-
sional careers. While living near Lub-
bock, in a little community called
Bledsoe, where the family had drifted
as farm workers, the Carters would
rush home after a long day of picking
cotton and begin singing as soon as
supper was finished. Sitting outside
in the gathering darkness they would
soon see cigarettes lighting up as the
neighbors gathered to hear them sing.
Before long they received the encour-
agement that talented amateurs have
often heard:
"You folks ought to be on the
radio!"
Their singing remained informal and
home-centered, though, until mid-
1935 when Dad decided that they
were indeed good enough to be on the
radio. Country music had proven it-
self commercially, with radio as its
chief medium of exposure. Jimmie
Rodgers, an adopted Texan, had
shown that it was possible to get rich
singing country music, and the Carter
Family of Virginia became known for
the family singing style that would
long be inspiring to other similar
groups. The famous western band,
The Sons Of The Pioneers, had begun
their recording career the previous
year, and in 1936 appeared at the
Texas Centennial in Dallas. The Pio-
neers' repertory, and their style of
close four-part harmony (done origi-
nally by Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, Roy
Rogers, and Hugh Farr), affected the
styles of many groups who came after
them and doubtless fueled the dreams
of other would-be professionals. The
Carters also were most certainly
aware of the famous gospel singers,
the Stamps Quartet (also galvanized
by appearances at the Centennial),
soon began their daily noon broad-
casts on KRLD in Dallas.
(((((
T h e C a r t e r c h i l d r e n l i t e r a l l y
l e a r n e d t h e i r s o n g s , a n d h ow t o s i n g ,
a t Mo m ’ s a n d D a d ’ s k n e e s .
(((((