“The Best of the Carter Family” 2017. Third Man Records. A compilation of recordings from 1927-1933 (first released on 78rpm from Victor Records and Bluebird Records) by Sara and Maybelle Carter.  A.P. Carter (Sara’s husband) is credited for writing the country/folk tunes writing but in reality he collected the songs from his sales travels throughout the Appalachia region (Sara and Maybelle also collected songs though they were not credited for this until much later). As always, Third Man has done a stellar job in the sound recovery of these old tracks as well as in the high quality of the album’s vinyl and packaging. Country/folk music is definitely not my go-to music, but I do have a soft spot for it…as a kid my parents would get together with their other folky/hippie friends for folk and bluegrass jam sessions and included a few Carter Family songs into the mix like “Keep on the Sunny Side,” “The Foggy Mountain Top” and “The Cannonball.” I think I also played a few of them as “fiddle tunes” as a kid on my violin. I honestly didn’t know that much about the Carter Family until we watched the Ken Burns documentary Country Music (2019), which was amazing. Featured extensively in that documentary was the history and current interviews of Dolly Parton, whose 75th birthday is today, January 19th (we don’t have any Parton on vinyl). So this Cater Family post is really a very long roundabout way of wishing Queen Dolly a happy birthday (she has, in my opinion, become a national treasure with her charity work, contributions to medical and scientific research, even Dollywood – which on its surface seems like an ego-booster – was her way of helping to bring much needed revenue to her hometown area in Tennessee). And, as noted above I am far from a country music fan, I think her song “Jolene” is one of the most haunting songs ever written.