James Carson

James Carson (born February 10, 1918 in Madison County , Kentucky , as James Roberts , † June 21, 2007 ) was an American old-time and country musician . Carson began his career with his father, the famous Fiddlin 'Doc Roberts , and became better known in the 1940s with his wife Martha Carson .

Life

Childhood and youth

James Roberts was born in 1918 in Madison County, his father's home, where he grew up on his father's farm. His father started his career in 1925 but, unlike his son, never became a professional musician.

Beginning with father

Young Roberts made his debut in the record business when he was only ten. His father Doc took him to a session in 1928, where little Roberts made the first records together with his father's musical partner, Asa Martin , as a singer and Doc Roberts on the mandolin. A large number of records were recorded over the next few years, some of which were also solo pieces, for example May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister? , a song that Charlie Poole recorded back in 1925.

The record sales were relatively good and radio appearances followed on WAAN ( Omaha , Nebraska ), WHO ( Des Moines , Iowa ), WOC ( Davenport , Iowa) and WLAP ( Lexington , Kentucky). While Roberts' father Doc gave up his career in 1934, his son began to work as a solo artist. Until the late 1930s he was often heard on Asa Martin's morning radio show.

Career with Martha Carson

In Lexington, Roberts met the young singer Irene Amburgey, who appeared with her sisters as the Sunshine Sisters . On June 8, 1939, Roberts married Amburgey in Lexington and went with her and her sisters first to Bluefield, West Virginia , then to Renfro Valley , Kentucky, and finally to Atlanta , Georgia .

While the three Amburgey sisters appeared on WSB as Hoot Owl Hollow Girls , Roberts was denied work at the station. Instead, he performed in the Atlanta area with various other musicians. Finally, WSB allowed him to appear on their program, but only as "James Carson" (or "Jimmy Carson" from time to time). On April 12, 1941 Carson made his debut in the successful WSB Saturday evening show WSB Barn Dance , in which he first appeared as a soloist and played as a mandolinist in other groups. After he and his wife Martha sang the song Keep on the Sunny Side at the Dixie Farm and Home Hour one day , the audience was so impressed that they only got together as a duo, James and Martha Carson, the Barn Dance Sweethearts , performed. With Martha on guitar and James on mandolin, the couple specialized in old-time gospel like When the Saints Go Marching In or Farther Along , making them the most successful guitar-mandolin duo in Atlanta.

In the mid-1940s, James and Martha recorded their first singles for the White Church label in Lee Roy Abernathy's studio. Sessions were held for Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950, but there were no hits among tracks like I'll Fly Away . In early 1950, the couple left Atlanta and moved to Knoxville , Tennessee , where they worked at WNOX. Shortly thereafter, James and Martha split up.

Later years

Martha Carson then moved to Nashville , where she started her own career, while James worked for the next ten years as a singer and musician for bluegrass groups such as Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper , the Masters Family and the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers . He was also a resident musician for WWVA in Wheeling , West Virginia, and performed at events around Knoxville.

From 1960 he went to extra-musical activities, remarried and settled in Lexington, Kentucky. Carson was inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985 because of his achievements in the Atlanta country scene. In the late 1980s he moved to Renfro Valley, Kentucky, where he worked as a background musician in the Renfro Valley Barn Dance . James Carson died in 2007.

literature

• Wayne W. Daniel: Pickin 'on Peachtree - A History of Country Music in Atlanta, Georgia (2000); University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-06968-4

Web links

• James Carson on Hillbilly-Music.com (English)
• Interview with James Roberts (Carson)