Here’s some vintage video of the Carter Family performing their biggest hit ever “Wildwood Flower” on the Grand Ole Opry.  There’s a great close up of Maybelle doing her famous solo at 1:07.  My brother, Charley, tells me that she called her technique of pickin’ the melody with her thumb pick and struming with the other picks the “Carter scratch”.   I was surprised to see that Maybelle did this in the key of D.  I had always thought she did it in C.  She does switch to the alto part when it goes up to the higher part.

I’ve really enjoyed seeing Ariel perform this song at Wheat Montana at the Kid’s Open Mic.  It’s amazing to see the next generation coming along to keep the tradition going.