Chuck Wagon Gang

Although the Chuck Wagon Gang has been around since 1936 -- undergoing many personnel changes over the years -- its sound and devotion to old-fashioned gospel has remained much the same. Their greatest significance is that the band provides an important link between country music and traditional sacred songs of the South. The original incarnation of the Chuck Wagon Gang was made up of four members of the Carter family -- no relation to the Carter Family. They were Dad Carter (David Parker Carter), his son Jim (born Ernest), daughter Rose (born Rosa Lola), and his daughter Effie. Dad Carter was born in Kentucky, but was raised in Clay County, Texas. He was enrolled in a singing school there when he met Carrie Brooks, whom he married in 1909. They had eight children, and to support them, Carter worked for the Rock Island Railroad in 1927. At other times, he and the family also picked cotton. The band formed around 1935 after one of the children became deathly ill and the family was left destitute; for additional income, Dad Carter talked the management at station KFYO Lubbock into hiring him as a host for a daily radio program. The original group was called the Carter Quartet, in which Dad sang tenor, Jim sang bass and played guitar, while Rose and Effie sang soprano and alto. They became popular and soon began earning $15 per week. The following year, the Carters moved to WBAP and billed themselves as the Chuck Wagon Gang; they sang a variety of secular and sometimes sacred songs. Their earliest recording session for ARC produced country singles, rather than gospel. As the years passed, they gradually became more gospel-oriented, and by the early '40s had switched over completely. In 1942, they spent a few months at a Tulsa radio station. The Chucks broke up for the...