Singer and musician Pam Linton chatted about the Carter Family and the digital age.
She is affectionately known as “Hollywood Down Home.” Pam Linton is one of music’s lasting troubadours. Her most recent project is “Songs of the Carter Family” (New Folk Records), featuring 15 tracks honoring the iconic pioneers of America music.
Joining Pam on the project are special guests, the highly awarded bluegrass and acoustic artists. Darin and Brooke Aldridge, Jeremy and Corrina Stephens.
Along with her husband, legendary Midwest-based troubadour, Sherwin Linton, Pam has toured the country for more than 4 decades, entertaining multiple generations of fans.
What artist(s) do you admire?
I was raised in a family that appreciated Country Music of the 1950’s through the 1980’s. I have a deep appreciation for the Country Music traditionalists, both the Nashville scene and the west coast music scene.
I love Rose Maddox and The Maddox Brothers. Wanda Jackson, who started her career in Country Music under the guides of Hank Thompson.
My favorite male Country Music voice is Earl Thomas Conley. I have always been a big Tammy Wynette fan. Tammy sang with emotion that sold the real-life circumstances of her songs. I enjoy Flaco Jimenez and the Tex-Mex sound. I have very eclectic musical tastes!
What makes a song endure in pop culture?
Identifiable melodies and relatable lyrics will transcend generations. The song can be reworked, updated or thrust into another genre but the melody and lyrics will live on.
What do you want your fans to feel when they hear you sing?
I want my vocal delivery to tug at your emotions. Maybe it’s a tear from a lyric that triggers a special memory, happy or sad. A smile or a chuckle from something sassy or humorous, I hope that my delivery is genuine and heartfelt.
Conveying the story, emotion and theme of the song is so important to me. That’s what makes a musical performance memorable.
What is the significance of the Carter Family to you?
I’m a music purist. I have a deep appreciation for music roots in every genre. We are all inventors, but the true inventor is the one who blazes the trail. A.P. Carter truly had a passion for music. It is what fueled him.
He was an adept listener and the creative energy of A.P., Sara and Maybelle forged the cornerstone for what we call Country Music today. The innocence of Maybelle Carter, questioning if her innovative guitar style was worth recording.
Little did she know she would become an instrumentalist of renown. Sara Carter and the lonesome, hollow emotion of her voice which unknowingly told her own story. The determination to make themselves a better life away from the everyday trials of Appalachia.
Maybelle and Sara’s strong will as women and courage to live outside of the accepted norms of the time. Donning trousers when women only wore them as outdoor work clothes and never publicly.
Traveling with their children in tow proving you can be a mom and still have a career. They were feminist trend setters.
These three individuals as musicians, innovators, stylists and trend setters impress me both musically and socially.
What moves you about the Carter Family’s music?
The emotion, the simplicity, the stories, the humor, the melodies. It is a ground-breaking package! From love songs to songs of jilted love, songs of cautious warning and deep faith, the earthy realism that comes through in the recordings is unmatched.
What can today’s artists and audiences learn from these traditional songs and performers?
From the songs, less can be more. In today’s music we take so much time in production that many recordings are overproduced, and the real human delivery is lost. In this recording we have been purposeful in respecting the meter and phrasing to preserve the human delivery.
Simplicity and sparce instrumentation allow you to enjoy the lyric which is so poetically written. These songs are definitely not written from “the hook” but rather from “the heart.”
From the performers, be courageous, believe in yourself, do hard things, take a chance and then put in the work. A.P. Carter believed music could be a lifestyle, a career, a way out of a simple, possibly impoverished life.
Sara and Maybelle knew they could do hard things, raise families, have careers and gain prominence in a “man’s world.”
I draw strength from these examples. Our world today does not give us the time to reflect and understand that we are not necessarily burdened with new problems.
They have possibly been problems for generations; we just need to figure out our own solutions to age old issues.
You have thrived in the music business for four decades. What are some of the changes and challenges you have witnessed and experienced?
Entertainment and the music business is an ever-changing entity. I have always said I am so fortunate to have entered the music business at the time I did.
I was able to work with many of Country Music and Rock and Rolls major name artists from Johnny Cash to Chubby Checker and with some of the great agents and talent buyers.
I received some of the best advice from Harry “Hap” Peebles, a very influential talent buyer from Wichita, KS. Hap had been Bob Wills manager and represented some of the biggest acts including Bob Hope.
Hap told me, “Work hard in this business and you will do well.” He didn’t tell me he’d make me a star! He had worked hard and new what it would take to find success at any level.
I miss the “night clubs” which employed entertainers 5-6 nights a week. These were entertainment and date night destinations. Customers enjoyed dinner, a Las Vegas style stage show and possibly dancing.
Entertainers moved about the country booking into these rooms for multiple weeks at a time.
This is where I honed my craft as an entertainer, not just a singer but engaging the audience in conversation. The true entertainer has a bit of shtick that makes them memorable.
In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic was a huge challenge for the entertainment business. For the first time in my life, I was unemployed!
I started a second business, a lady’s boutique, online and have now expanded that to online and two small locations. So, five years later, I juggle multiple businesses and tour.
How does it feel to be a part of the digital age? (Now with streaming, technology and social media being so prevalent.)
I have embraced the digital age! I love the aspect of streaming music and podcasts as it has made entertainment and learning of all types available to everyone worldwide. It has taken down the barriers.
I have learned to use today’s technology to help me manage my businesses efficiently. I am an avid user of AI for writing, logo design and social media generation.
I have become a social media queen! I feel that too, has taken down the barriers worldwide. You can communicate with your audience daily keeping them engaged and growing the numbers.
It has made marketing and advertising affordable and allows the dollars spent to be allocated to an audience that fits your niche.
How have things changed…or have they…for women in music?
Was there a glass ceiling for women in the music business? Yes, definitely! Let’s look at two examples of pioneers who crushed it!
Sara and Maybelle Carter: These remarkable women faced the challenges of motherhood and occupation. They were gifted instrumentalists at a time when women were not considered innovators instrumentally.
Chet Atkins has said his favorite guitar player is Mother Maybelle Carter.
Sara and Maybelle raised children and traveled performing. Maybelle often had her children in tow, bringing them up in the business and nurturing their careers from an early age.
I have visited with folks who saw the Carter Family perform live. It was not uncommon for Sara and Maybelle to wear slacks when traveling. One story quoted to me included, “I had never seen a woman wear britches except in the garden, they were wearing britches backstage.”
I also have to give a nod to Kitty Wells! Kitty had been singing background vocals on Johnny & Jack records. It was the third harmony part that made their Hillbilly, Country, Bluegrass, Rockabilly sound really cook.
Touring with her husband Jonny Wright and Jack Anglin, they were encouraged to not make Kitty the headliner of the act because it was thought women could not sell Country Music records.
With thoughts of retirement, Kitty reluctantly agreed to a session with Decca Records to records “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels.” With a string of successive hits, Kitty Wells proved women could sell records.
There is a Carter Family connection here too, as the melody for “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” is drawn from the Carter Family song “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes.”
We can’t go without mentioning your husband, the legendary Sherwin Linton. Please share some of the highlights of his amazing musical career and your life together.
My husband Sherwin has had a long and successful music career. He has charted over twenty records nationally including a Top 10 record, “Cotton King” in 1967 and a million selling Christmas song, “Santa Got A DWI” in 1986.
Sherwin has been inducted into 12 halls of fame, and he will be the first to tell you, “He’s not famous.”
Sherwin produced and released the album “Hello, I’m Not Johnny Cash” on his own Black Gold Records label in 1971. This is considered the first recorded Cash tribute and is the only one personally endorsed by Cash.
Sherwin developed a wonderful friendship with Johnny Cash, June Carter and their families speaking with Johnny by phone just days before he passed.
My time as a “side man” in Sherwin’s show has been the best musical education I could hope for. I have had the opportunity to meet and work with many of the Grand Ole Opry stars and early Rock and Roll celebrities. Sherwin is a mentor to so many youth looking to get into the music business.
He will always say that some of the prized moments in his career are when he is able to introduce a new youth act and see them truly entertain an audience.
Sherwin and I have been married for thirty-seven years, and we share the same passion for the music we love.
To learn more about Pam Linton, check out her official website.
