Mother Maybelle’s Guitar For Sale

A Gibson L-5 that was the primary instrument of “Mother Maybelle” Carter is up for sale. Carter, one-third of the legendary Carter Family, purchased the guitar in the late ’20s. The instrument is being sold by Nashville’s Gruhn Guitars and is expected to collect over half a million dollars. It would have sold originally for $275 and was Gibson‘s highest priced model at the time. From their first recordings in 1927 to the band’s final separation in 1943, the original Carter Family – Mother Maybelle, cousin/sister-in-law Sara, and brother-in-law A.P. – were responsible for creating the bedrock of American country music with their introductions of Appalachian/Old World folk songs including their signature song Keep on the Sunny Side, Wildwood Flower, Wabash Cannonball, and Will the Circle Be Unbroken. After the band’s break-up, Carter continued to perform with her daughters Helen, Anita, and June – who would establish herself as a solo artist and later working with her third husband Johnny Cash.