The Winding Stream tells the story of the American roots music dynasty, the Carters and the Cashes. Starting with the Original Carter Family, the film traces the ebb and flow of their influence, the transformation of that act into the Carter Sisters, June CarterÍs marital alliance with legend Johnny Cash, and the efforts of present-day family to keep this long musical legacy alive. The Carters didnÍt just play the music of the hill country. They helped invent it. A.P. was both composer and song collector, arranging snippets of ancient, musty melodies into commercial American popular music. Maybelle took the then-underutilized guitar and made it into the cornerstone of country instrumentation, in no small part by developing innovative ways of playing it that are now commonplace. And Sara became the first well-known womanÍs voice in country music, stamping it with the eerie Gothic quality we find in so much of that genreÍs canon now. The stream these three created has turned into a rushing river and has moved through several generations of musicians. Arguably, there would be no Folk Revival of the ï60s without them, no country-rock bands of the 70s, and no alt-country hipsters of our present era. Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Keep on the Sunny Side. Worried Man Blues. Are You Lonesome Tonight? These are just some of the hundreds of songs the Original Carter Family presented to the world. ItÍs hard to overstate their influence on American music.
