The Carters were discovered and recorded by the great Ralph Peer (1892-1960), the single most important figure in the establishment of roots music ("race" and "hillbilly," aka "blues" and "country") as commercially viable in the '20s as a talent scout, producer and music publisher. Peer was born in Kansas City and helped his father sell sewing machines, phonographs and recordings as a teen. After high school he went to work for Columbia, followed by service in the U.S. Merchant Marine during WWI.

Peer was hired as recording director of the Okeh label in 1920. Success came almost immediately when he produced Mamie Smith's aforementioned "Crazy Blues" in New York. More important than the urban blues sung by the likes of vaudeville entertainer Smith were Peer's field recordings where his feet found the talent, his ear sorted out the best material and his personality brought out relaxed, confident performances by blues and country greats Sara Martin, Fiddlin' John Carson (the first genuine country recording "The Little Old Cabin In the Lane" in '23), Ernest "Pop" Stoneman ("The Titanic," '25, one of the biggest sellers of the '20s), Lonnie Johnson, Victoria Spivey, and Sippie Wallace, all for Okeh.

Peer went to Victor in '25, where in addition to founding the modern country music publishing business with Southern Music (his deal with Victor allowed him to solicit publishing rights for any song he recorded), he produced an incredible series of blues and country records on the road in Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis and Charlotte with Jimmie Davis, Sleepy John Estes, Alberta Hunter, Tommy Johnson, Furry Lewis, Blind Willie McTell, Frank Stokes, and countless others.

But his most famous discoveries took place in Bristol, Tennessee, in August of '27, where he found Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933) and the Carter Family.

Peer's recordings with the great Rodgers included the various "Blue Yodels," "The Soldier's Sweetheart," "Waiting For a Train," and the rest of the Singing Brakeman's classic catalog before his death from tuberculosis in '33.

Perhaps the single most important song to arise from the Bristol Sessions (as they have become known), though, was actually recorded in Camden, NJ. A.P. Carter (1893-1960) was a roving church singing instructor and fiddler/guitarist from western Virginia when he met singer/autoharpist Sara Dougherty (1899-1979); they were married in 1915, and in '26 joined by Sara's guitar playing cousin Maybelle (1909-78, she was also married to A.P.'s brother) to form a performing trio.