On Border Radio, Vol. 3: 1939

AMG Review of On Border Radio, Vol. 3: 1939

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

There's apparently a well-full of transcription discs of late-'30s Carter Family broadcasts on XET in Monterrey, Mexico, as this series enters its third volume with no drops in quality. Again it shows the Carters in various combinations, sometimes featuring Jeanette Carter, sometimes the then-young Carter children, sometimes A.P. There are a bunch of famed standards on board here, like "You Are My Sunshine," "Worried Man Blues," "Great Speckled Bird," "I Shall Not Be Moved," "Wade in the Water," "Something Got a Hold on Me," "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Oh, Susanna," though many of the 20-odd tracks are less familiar. It, and other discs in the series, are less recommended than their studio recordings because the songs (including some station IDs) are often extremely short and the presentation less consistent than on the average Carter Family compilation. For serious Carter Family fans, though, On Border Radio, Vol. 3: 1939 and its companion volumes are valuable additions to the act's discography.