Carlene Carter & Marty Stuart Video performing A.P Carter’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Carlene Carter and Marty Stuart pair together to perform A.P Carter’s “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” during the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s BIG NIGHT (At the Museum), Carter playing the priceless Gibson L-5 guitar that belonged to her grandmother, Mother Maybelle Carter.

That guitar—with which Mother Maybelle recorded epics including “Keep on the Sunny Side” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”—once had a price: She bought it in 1928 for $275, which equates to more than $4,000 in today’s dollars. Carter wanted the instrument because it was twice as loud as any other guitar on the market. With it, Mother Maybelle Carter became the first guitar hero of country music, inspiring greats including Chet Atkins and Earl Scruggs.

Carlene Carter grew up traveling with her grandmother, her mother (June Carter, later June Carter Cash), and her sisters, playing concerts and learning lessons in life and music. Mother Maybelle’s is the most iconic guitar in the Museum’s collection, and handing it to Carlene—herself the author of numerous country hits—was a way to keep the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s mission front and center.

Paired with BIG NIGHT (At the Museum) host Marty Stuart on Bill Monroe’s famous mandolin, the guitar rings in the Hall of Fame Rotunda, underscoring that the circle is, indeed, unbroken.
------