Change is inevitable. Adjusting to change, however, is one of the hardest struggles in the human story. Changing jobs, changing schools, moving to a new place are all challenging and call upon a full range of inner resources to maintain our mental balance and health. But, there is nothing more devastating than the death of a family member or a friend. When that person has a larger public identity--- just witness the public responses to the death of Elvis and very recently, young Heath Ledger--- the issues of sudden change and public grief can be acutely felt throughout our culture.
Change is inevitable. Adjusting to change, however, is one of the hardest struggles in the human story. Changing jobs, changing schools, moving to a new place are all challenging and call upon a full range of inner resources to maintain our mental balance and health. But, there is nothing more devastating than the death of a family member or a friend. When that person has a larger public identity--- just witness the public responses to the death of Elvis and very recently, young Heath Ledger--- the issues of sudden change and public grief can be acutely felt throughout our culture.It is not often, in our region, that we witness this kind of public and private mourning. But, when Janette Carter, founder and beloved musical voice of the Carter Family Fold, passed away in January 2006, her death and the sense of loss that it created in our community was and is still widely and deeply felt.
Janette was our collective musical “mother”. She was the voice of the common person, the workingman and woman; she showed us all that will and hard work could lead to great things, and she was a champion of justice. And, she did it all in the very public eye from the stage of the Carter Fold.
She walked through that “tobacco warehouse” sized Carter Fold building with grace and dignity, with hospitality and good cheer, and always with a smile for those who asked for a picture with her. After all, this was as close as many of us would ever come to “royalty”!
She was a member of the hallowed Carter Family, A.P. and Sara’s daughter, and Maybelle’s niece! When she sang those Carter Family songs, thousands of people were recalled to their childhoods, to the hard times when the only thing it seemed many people had to cling to for hope was a Carter Family song, when families gathered together around radios waiting for the familiar and comforting first few notes of “Keep on the Sunnyside.” For a moment, no matter how hard the times might have been, there was “a bright and sunny side too!”
The recent tornado in Big Stone Gap reminds us once again that we need to keep singing this timeless song.
Many of middle age and those of us approaching old age grew up in Janette’s “living-room” where we gathered each Saturday night to hear the music and Janette’s mantra of family, honor, respect, love of place, religion, and tradition. Over and over, she repeated these lessons for us and taught us to respect music with “heart”; music that came from people’s lives and souls; music that did not seek fame and fortune but rather sought to bring comfort and a sense of belonging in a hard world full of sudden and dramatic changes.
Out of a collective sense of love and respect for Janette Carter and her dedication to traditional music, a group of friends have dedicated a new website, www.friendsofthecarterfold.org [1] , to the legacy of Janette Carter and to the continuing line of Carter Family musicians like Janette’s son, Dale Jett. Before her death, Janette expressed in public recordings every confidence that her children would carry on the work of the Carter Fold, and she stated that she believed Dale would carry forth the family music since he had been her musical partner and co-host at the Fold for many years. Of her three children, Dale had shown the most interest in the music, playing for many years locally at Home Craft Days at MECC, Rhythm and Roots in Bristol, VA/TN, the Gathering in the Gap in Big Stone Gap, VA, the Clinch Mountain Music Fest in Scott County, the Barter Theater and the Highland Festival, Abingdon, VA, and on stages from the Smithsonian Folk Festival to the hugely popular radio show, Mountain Stage. In Dale, Janette had found a way to keep her promise to her father to carry on the family musical legacy.
The Friends of the Carter Family Fold invite visitors to come to our website, www.friendsofthefold.org [2], and hear once again Janette’s music and to share pictures, memories, hopes, and dreams for the future of the Carter Fold and Janette’s family. And we know that you will share our sense of “justice” that so motivated Janette Carter as she strived and worked to seek justice and honor for her father’s name and musical legacy. That sense of justice and the dedication to the “heart” of music is the goal of the website that honors the continuing legacy of Janette Carter.
Friends of the Fold Mar.21, 2008
www.friendsofthefold.org [3]
P.O. Box 2177
Weber City,