The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #117018 Message #2516804
Posted By: Richie
16-Dec-08 - 10:18 AM
Thread Name: Carter Family Songs: Summary of Sources
Subject: Carter Family Songs: Summary of Sources
Hi,
This thread will be a summary of the origins and sources of the 292 original Carter Family songs recorded from 1927 until 1941.
The songs will be listed in alphabetical order first then in the order they were recorded. An asterisk before the title indicates that either a member of the Carter Family wrote the song, another musician wrote the song after 1923 or we don't know the source of the song yet. An asterisk also indicates that the Carters, Peer Int or whoever the copyright is assigned, has a valid copyright on the song.
The idea of this thread is to give a brief summary of the origin. This will help musicians, record companies and publishers determine whether that can freely use the songs. Remember that the Carter Family arrangements are also copyrighted and unless the Carters used other musicians arrangements (which they did in some cases) using their exact arrangement could be considered a copyright infringement.
About 90% of the Carters songs are based on other songs. Many of the Carters arrangements and lyrics based on other songs are freely used today. The Wildwood Flower, Circle Be Unbroken, and Worried Man Blues just a few that are considered PD or traditional.
The date for free use in regard to published sheet music and lyrics is 1923. Anything before 1923 is free to use. Any song may be recorded but a mechanical licensing fee is owed the copyright holder on songs after 1923 that have a valid copyright.
Here is how the short alphabetical summary is organized:
TITLE--DATE OF (or Approximate date of) ORIGIN--AUTHOR(S)--OTHER TITLES--REFERENCES AND INFO--DATE RECORDED
Here is how the summary by recording date is organized:
RECORDING DATE & PLACE--TITLE--DATE OF (or Approximate date of) ORIGIN--AUTHOR(S)--OTHER TITLES--REFERENCES AND INFO
Richie
This is an edited PermaThread® to document the sources of the songs of the Carter Family. This thread will be edited by Richie. Feel free to post to this thread, but remember that all messages posted here are subject to editing or deletion.
-Joe Offer-