Cynthia May Carver (March 14, 1903 – April 11, 1980), known professionally as Cousin Emmy, was a banjo player, fiddler and country singer who was one of the pioneering solo female stars in the country music industry. Although hit records eluded her, she proved to be a major name in personal appearances and on radio in the 1940s and 50s. In the 1960s she gained a new audience on the folk music circuit. Her song "Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man?" became a bluegrass standard after it was covered by the

Osborne Brothers The Osborne Brothers, Sonny (October 29, 1937 – October 24, 2021) and Bobby (born December 7, 1931), were an influential and popular bluegrass act during the 1960s and 1970s and until Sonny retired in 2005. They are probably best known for ...

. She started out her career by playing with Frankie Moore's Log Cabin Boys. She influenced the playing of

Grandpa Jones Louis Marshall Jones (October 20, 1913 – February 19, 1998), known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.McCall, Michael; ...

. She appeared in two films, '' Swing in the Saddle'' and ''

The Second Greatest Sex ''The Second Greatest Sex'' is a 1955 Western musical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Jeanne Crain and George Nader. It is a Western version of the play ''Lysistrata'' by Aristophanes. Plot In 1880, men from three Kansas ...

''.

Early years

Cousin Emmy was born into a family of sharecroppers, with six older siblings and one younger.

Career

Cousin Emmy began performing as a small child. Playing five-string banjo, she performed with two Carver cousins in a band broadcast on

WHB WHB (810 AM) is a commercial radio station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by Union Broadcasting and it airs an all-sports radio format. For most of the 1950s through the 1970s, while it was broadcasting at 710 AM, ...

in Kansas City, Missouri. After developing a following in her native Barren County, Kentucky, she eventually attracted the attention of radio station WHAS in Louisville, where she became a featured act with Frankie Moore's Log Cabin Boys in 1935. Between her radio performances, she performed in live shows, often traveling as much as 500 miles in one day. In 1935, she won the

National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest The National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest is an old-time music competition, festival, and musical gathering in the western United States, held annually during the third full week in June in Weiser, Idaho, about northwest of Boise. Within the fiddli ...

– the first woman to do so. By 1938, she had her own touring group and a radio program. As her radio shows gained popularity, she moved on to larger markets at

WNOX WNOX (93.1 FM, "Awesome 93.1") is a commercial radio station licensed to the suburb of Karns, Tennessee, and serving the Knoxville metropolitan area. The station is owned by SummitMedia and airs a classic hits format. WNOX's studios and o ...

in Knoxville, Tennessee, at

KMOX KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Bouleva ...

in St. Louis (beginning in 1941) and Chicago. Her KMOX broadcast attracted more than 2.5 million listeners "from Canada to Mexico." This popularity led to a recording contract at

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

. Although she recorded only one album for the label, this recording and her performances with Cousin Emmy and Her Kinfolk helped her develop a devoted fanbase. In 1945, ''Cousin Emmy ... Song Book'' was published. It included photographs, a biographical sketch, and lyrics of nine songs. Later, Cousin Emmy relocated to Los Angeles, where she appeared in the film, '' Swing in the Saddle''. She also appeared at local country music clubs while raising several adopted children. After the

heard Cousin Emmy and Her Kinfolk's recording of "Ruby Are You Mad?" on a jukebox, they recorded the song for

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

in 1956, and it remains one of their best known recordings. The song is perhaps best known today for its top five remake by

Buck Owens Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for the Buckaroos, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 ...

in 1971. She also had an album, "Kentucky Mountain Ballads" in 1947 on the

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

label. Cousin Emmy gained a new audience as a result of the

folk revival The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Billie Holiday, Richard Dyer-Benn ...

of the 1960s. In 1961, while performing at a "Country & Western Night" show at

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

, she met the

New Lost City Ramblers The New Lost City Ramblers, or NLCR, was an American contemporary old-time string band that formed in New York City in 1958 during the folk revival. Mike Seeger, John Cohen and Tom Paley were its founding members. Tracy Schwarz replaced Paley, w ...

, one of several groups that had formed during that time. She appeared on ''

Rainbow Quest ''Rainbow Quest'' (1965–66) was a U.S. television series devoted to folk music and hosted by Pete Seeger. It was videotaped in black-and-white and featured musicians playing in traditional American music genres such as traditional folk music, ...

'', a

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

series hosted by

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

. In 1967, the New Lost City Ramblers convinced Cousin Emmy to record with them on the album "The New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy". This led to an appearance at the

Newport Folk Festival Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. It was one of the first modern music festivals in America, and remains a foca ...

, excerpts of which were released on

Vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...

, as part of an anthology collection and in ''

Festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

'', an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-nominated documentary. An astute businesswoman, she retained the copyrights to her songs.

Influence

Her song ''Chilly Scenes of Winter'' from the album ''The New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy'' is mentioned in

Ann Beattie Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American novelist and short story writer. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story f ...

's 1976 novel of the same name, when the novel's protagonist Charles listens to it. The song's theme of fickle love provided the title.

Death

Carver died in

Sherman Oaks Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...

, California on April 11, 1980, and is buried at the Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall.

References

External links

All Music GuideCountry Music Television
*
Hillbilly-Music Dawt Com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cousin Emmy 1903 births 1980 deaths American banjoists Country musicians from Kentucky Decca Records artists Musicians from Appalachia Old-time musicians People from Barren County, Kentucky Vanguard Records artists Singers from Kentucky 20th-century American singers Kentucky women musicians 20th-century American women singers