No, Frank, Ralph Peer did not say that Carson's singing was awful, but that it was "pluperfect awful". Now that is not a word that I use every day, but it seems to me that it takes awfulness to a whole new level! Document Records from Austria has just reissued the complete Fiddlin' John Carson on four CDs, 8014, 8015, 8016, and 8017.

Here is another Peerless story. It seems that in 1925, a string band came to New York to audition for him. When Ralph asked what they called the band, one of the members replied, "Call us anything you want. We are nothing but a bunch of hillbillies from North Carolina and Virginia." Peer promptly dubbed them The Hill Billies, and an entire genre got its name, though many have disowned the connection over the intervening years. Source: John Morthland in The Best of Country Music.