Maybelle Played Guitar (Digital Download)

Written by Cathy Fink and performed by Fink, Marxer, & Gleaves, “Maybelle Played Guitar” honors Maybelle Carter of the Original Carter Family, iconic acoustic guitar player and country music mother to all. She was born May 10, 1909 and this year we celebrate her 110th birthday.

In 1928 at the age of 19, she played her innovative lead guitar part to the “Wildwood Flower” in the Original Carter Family recording sessions in Camden, NJ the year following their Bristol Sessions. Her thumb pick lead and index finger strum was perhaps the earliest lead country guitar recorded and since copied by “everyone who plays guitar” from Doc Watson to Chet Atkins, Marty Stuart, and a who’s-who of guitarists. Maybelle purchased her Lloyd Loar Gibson F5 Guitar in 1928, and it was her constant musical companion until she died in 1978.