“Carter’s Blues” began as a Carter Family song, credited to A.P. Carter, who recorded it with the family in the early 1930s. Bluegrass musicians later took up its melody as an instrumental, sometimes under the title “False-Hearted Lover.”
The tune carries the modal, mournful quality of the old Carter Family material. Stripped of its words, it becomes a vehicle for lyrical playing, the bluesy melody lending itself to mandolin, banjo, and guitar.
The tune has stayed in the bluegrass instrumental repertoire.
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