Helen Carter - Solo Career

Solo Career

Helen pursued a solo career apart from the family. She recorded for a number of historically important independent labels such as Tennessee, Republic, Starday and Hickory. She had releases on major labels such as Columbia and Okeh as well. She recorded duets with such acts as The Willis Brothers, Johnny Bond, famed Grand Olde Opry announcer Grant Turner, and Wiley Barkdull (a singer who sounded a lot like Lefty Frizzell). In the 1960s, Helen teamed with Dolores Dinning of the Dinning Sisters to form a short-lived group called the Blondettes that recorded for MGM. While many of Carter's solo recordings were favorites with loyal fans and always welcomed by concert goers, they did not have a great deal of commercial success. One likely reason for Helen's limited success as a solo artist may have been competition for radio air play with other members of her famous clan.

Throughout the recording career of the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle, much of the time, all four group members had individual recording contracts as well. Though each had her own style, it is of note that all members of the Carter Sisters & Mother Maybelle group (in various combinations) often sang and played on one another's solo recordings. Therefore, it was not unusual for the members' solo recordings to sound a lot like the group recordings.

Another possible reason for Helen Carter's limited success with her solo recordings may simply have been that she was ahead of her time in terms of what the conservative country music establishment was willing to accept. The 1950s was an era in which barriers were being broken by the likes of Kitty Wells. Yet, some of Helen's self-penned lyrics may have been deemed a bit risque:

From Unfit Mother: My neighbors said I was too wild, unfit to mother my own child

From Heart Full of Shame: I came to him in a veil of purest white, but you came to him as an angel of the night

Helen's greatest commercial success came by way of her songwriting. She wrote for Acuff-Rose Music and Pamper Music, among other companies. Some of the better known titles she wrote or co-wrote include "The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea", "Wall to Wall Love", "Rosanna's Going Wild", "Poor Old Heartsick Me", "Is This My Destiny?" and "What am I Supposed to Do?" Music acts as diverse as Red Foley, the Byrds, Jan Howard, Wanda Jackson, Johnny Cash, Billy Grammer, Ray Price, Willie Nelson, Faron Young, Jean Shepard, the Louvin Brothers, Ann-Margret, Waylon Jennings and Mark Dinning are among the more than sixty who have recorded her songs.

Helen Carter recorded two solo albums for Old Homestead Records and did guest spots on recordings by her niece Carlene Carter and Southern Gospel artist Jacky Jack White later in her life. She also teamed with various members of the Carter Family for periodic recordings. In addition to the numerous recordings before Maybelle's death, Helen recorded with later versions of the Carter Family. In the 1980s a group featuring Helen (with two of her sons: David & Kevin; another son, Danny, performed with an earlier version of the group in the 1970s) and Anita (with her daughter Lorrie) recorded two albums and some singles for the Audiograph label. Helen, Anita and June (with one of her daughters, Carlene) recorded for Polygram/Mercury a few years later. June's other daughter, Rosie joined the group after Carlene's solo career began to gain momentum in the 1990s. On personal appearances it was not unusual for the lineup of the Carter Family to change. June's son John Carter Cash, and her granddaughter, Tiffany; as well as other relatives, sometimes performed with the group.