Cousin Emmy

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 in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1935, she won the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest – 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 in Knoxville, Tennessee, at KMOX 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. 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.

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.

Cousin Emmy gained a new audience as a result of the folk revival of the 1960s. In 1961, while performing at a "Country & Western Night" show at Disneyland, she met the New Lost City Ramblers, one of several groups that had formed during that time. She appeared on Rainbow Quest, a folk music series hosted by Pete Seeger. 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, excerpts of which were released on Vanguard, as part of an anthology collection and in Festival, an Academy Award-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'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, California on April 11, 1980.