Janette Carter and the Carter Fold welcome you to The Carter Fold every Saturday night! Janette and her brother Joe, children of A.P. and Sara Carter, are carrying on the musical and performing traditions established by their parents and Maybelle Carter at the dawn of the age of country music—an age they helped establish beginning in 1927.
And they did it right where the Carter Fold is today, in Poor Valley, at the foot of Clinch Mountain in southwest Virginia. Since 1974, the non-profit Carter Music Center has presented programs of old time and bluegrass music every weekend. Formally established in 1979, the Center's objective is to promote old-time music and pay tribute to the Original Carter Family (A.P Carter, Sara Carter, and Maybelle Carter). The Saturday concerts highlight the musical style made popular by the Carter Family, considered by many as country music's first family.
In keeping with the traditional music style, no electrical instruments are allowed (everything is acoustic). There's lots of dancing and fun for the entire family. Shows are family-oriented; no alcohol is permitted at concerts. Delicious home-fixed snacks are available at the Carter Fold Snack Bar, and you might be able to round out your collection of Carter Family recordings at the well-stocked souvenir and record concession. Come early and browse through our Museum before the show.
Once each year, a two-day (Friday and Saturday) festival takes place the first Saturday/Sunday weekend of August. Festival show times are from 2:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. each day. Mountain craftsmen are on hand to sell their goods, and there's lots of good country cooking going on, too. A Saturday with us in rural southwest Virginia will supply you with an evening of musical entertainment and country hospitality you won't soon forget. Chances are you'll make some new friends and take with you some fond memories. We'd love to have you visit us. .
The Carter Family Fold is part of the Carter Family Memorial Music Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of old-time, traditional country and mountain music.
Many people have asked, "Where does the term Carter Family Fold originate?" The Carter Family Fold is specifically the theater-like structure at the Carter Family Memorial Music Center, which consists of the A.P. Carter & Carter Family Museum and the A.P. Carter Birthplace Cabin, as well as the Fold building. Joe Carter drew inspiration from a verse in the Bible when he so aptly named the building -- the term "fold" meaning "flock":
"And the other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall be of one fold, and one shepherd"
John 10:16
Visit the new website at www.friendsofthefold.org [1]