Perfect cast and a good story

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This documentary on the seminal country music act The Carter Family has it's work cut out for it. It was made some 80 years after the beginning of their career, there is no known motion picture film of A. P. Carter (who was still alive as late as 1960!!!), not all that much on Sara Carter either, and all three had been gone at the time for at least thirty years. Heck, all three of Maybelle Carter's daughters were also deceased by the time filmmaking commenced and her famous son-in-law Johnny Cash wasn't long for this world himself. And yet the film succeeds beautifully thanks to the very rare still photography, interviews with A.P. and Sara's children and grandchildren as well as Maybelle's grandkids and Cash in one of his very last interviews, the stunningly beautiful cinematography of the Carter's native rural Virginia (some areas remarkably unchanged after almost a century), and above all the excerpts of their still powerful music lead by Sara's haunting vocals and A. P.'s superb songwriting,or at least extraordinary taste in "songcatching" (much of his work was originally penned by rural southerners and given to him).The Carter Family of course are most famous in recent decades thanks to their family ties to music icon Johnny Cash. Poor A. P. and Sara often get the short shrift in the Carter Family retelling, quite unjustly, and it's worth noting of the two reviews here one centers on Cash and Maybelle and doesn't even mention them, the other repeatedly refers to "A. C. Carter" (sic). Pro reviewers weren't much better as the Variety review is also Cash and Maybelle oriented. I feel the filmmakers gave us the right balance in presenting Cash but not really making this his story despite the Cash name being mentioned in the subtitle. I also like the fact that the contemporary musicians in the film were truly influenced by the Carter Family and not just a bunch of current big names parroting hackneyed comments to widen the film's audience or the suggest that their work is on the level with that of the legends profiled as is often the case with these type of music documentaries.The film is a lovely piece of work and I'm certainly going to buy the DVD release for my personal collection.

If you'd asked me before I saw this documentary about the Carter family if I liked country music, I would have given you an emphatic NO! However, again and again and again, I found myself tapping my feet and swinging my head and enjoying the music tremendously. Because of this, I urge country music haters to think twice about skipping this excellent and interesting documentary.The film is about the famed Carter family, the first famous country musicians. It follows A.C. Carter, his wife Sara and her cousin Maybelle as they gained fame. And, following the divorce of A.C. and Sara, the film then switches to Maybelle who began touring with her daughters, June (later June Carter Cash), Helen and Anita. Their influence on various musicians (such as Johnny Cash) is explored. Then, late in the film, how the daughter of A.C. and her family then took up the musical life as they created the Carter Fold (a performance venue and museum in Southern Virginia).So what did I like about this film? Well, some of this is personal, as my wife's parents lived in Bristol, Tennessee and I didn't realize that this was very close to where the Carters lived and is the city where they were first discovered. I noticed a LOT of Tennessee Ernie Ford plaques but somehow never noticed any sort of monuments or roads named after the Carters. It also works well as a documentary because it seems very complete...following the various branches of the extended family. The music is also great as are the interviews. Overall, I learned a lot and liked this film...what more can I say?

Netflix has just put this on streaming and whatever gripes I have with Netflix vanish when they 'come through' with something so 'tasty'. This is the story of birth of country music as PERFORMED music on radio, records, shows etc. It began thus in 1927 in a makeshift recording studio on the second floor of a hat factory in Bristol Virginia.We can see the strength and dignity of Mother Maybelle Carter again and again throughout this documentary. She was a seasoned road performer and no naive country 'stereotype'. Like one musician said, some of those Nashville stars sunk into drink, ruin and despair would call her in the middle of the night, "Mama, I need help". And she was always there for them.There is no understanding Johnny Cash apart from the Carter family and one seriously doubts if he would have lived long enough to be famous without their love.Lots of great songs, a few too many renditions of Keep on the Sunny Side when there are SO many others but that is a minor quibble. This should send you all over the net looking up the many Carter family and related sessions and old film clips.