Sunshine In The Shadows: A Song History

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The Carter Family recorded “Sunshine in the Shadows” for Victor on May 25, 1931, with A. P. Carter singing bass, Sara Carter singing alto and playing autoharp, and Maybelle Carter singing soprano and playing guitar.[1] The Discography of American Historical Recordings places the session in Charlotte, North Carolina, but marks that location as unconfirmed.[1] Ralph Peer supervised the session, and the second of two takes became the master.[1] Victor’s ledgers credit the song to A. P. Carter, and the sources consulted here do not trace it to any older printed or recorded song.[1]

Watercolor of a single tree with the sun blazing through its crown above a field

Charles Burchfield, The Sun Through the Trees, watercolor and opaque watercolor, 1917. Shown for the song's title; it has no connection to the song.

Victor issued it on record 23626, backed with “Weary Prodigal Son,” recorded the same day, and the discography gives a sales figure of 4,329 copies for that record, though it cautions that such figures are not authoritative.[2] The same performance came out again on Victor’s Bluebird label, this time paired with “Sow ’Em on the Mountain,” a side the group had cut in November 1930.[3] It was also issued on the Montgomery Ward label and on Zonophone records in Australia and South Africa.[1] Bear Family later included it on its compact disc release In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain.[4]

Elwood Donnelly includes it, in DAD tuning, in Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family, which gathers 35 of the group’s songs with guidance on playing them on mountain dulcimer, accompanying them and singing them.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Sunshine In The Shadows"

Sources

  1. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-69348. Sunshine in the shadows / Carter Family".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor 23626 (Black label (popular) 10-in. double-faced)".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Bluebird B-5468 (10-in. double-faced)".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Bear Family (Germany) BCD 15865 (Compact disc). In the shadow of Clinch Mountain".
  5. Elwood Donnelly: "Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family".
  6. Image: Charles Burchfield, The Sun Through the Trees, watercolor and opaque watercolor, 1917. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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