Good forFamiliesLive-music fans
Every Saturday night, in Poor Valley at the foot of Clinch Mountain, a rustic music shed seats more than 800 people for traditional Appalachian music. This is the Carter Family Fold — established by Janette Carter, one of three children of A.P. and Sara Carter, to honor her parents and Maybelle Carter, the family credited as forerunners of modern country music. The original Carter Family lived on this ground. A.P. Carter's old general store still stands as a museum, opening an hour before each show.
Quick facts
- ·The Carter Family Fold traces its founding to 1974, when Janette Carter (daughter of A.P. Carter) began hosting music gatherings to honor a promise to her father to keep traditional Appalachian/old-time music alive; the dedicated performance building was constructed in 1976 and opened to the public in 1979, with seating commonly cited as roughly 800-850 (Wikipedia gives a more precise 842-seat figure).
- ·The Carter Fold enforces a no-electric-instruments rule at its weekly concerts (held Saturday evenings, February through November) as a deliberate preservation practice to keep old-time string band, bluegrass, and acoustic folk music authentic to its Appalachian roots rather than the amplified, commercialized Nashville country sound; per Wikipedia, the rule 'was often set aside for performances by singer Johnny Cash, a Carter family in-law.'
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3 historical photographs.
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Editorial content compiled with AI assistance. Place details verified against public records.