Storytelling Music Competition and Pickin’ Porch Photo Competition open the road to Carter Family Fold 2027, a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Bristol Sessions.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (October 21, 2026) – The Carter Family Fold today announced Carter Family Fold 2027, a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Bristol Sessions, at the IBMA World of Bluegrass press conference on the Virginia Is for Lovers stage. In addition to special artists playing the Fold throughout the season, the Fold is launching two international competitions.
“People come from all over the world to visit the Carter Family Fold because of the living legacy of The Carter Family,” said Ellen Stroud, Executive Director of the Carter Family Fold. “These two international competitions will allow everyone to be part of that legacy, whether you tell your community’s story through song and/or show us your own porch pickin’ tradition. We can’t wait to see what the world sends home to Hiltons.”
Storytelling Music Competition (January 27 – April 27, 2027)
The Carters are known for collecting, arranging and performing traditional folk songs, old-time mountain ballads and rural gospel tunes from Southwest Virginia. A few years after the Bristol Sessions, A.P. Carter helped a storm-stricken community and then wrote and recorded “The Cyclone of Rye Cove,” carrying a real event forward through song. The Fold invites musicians from around the world to do the same for their own communities with original music that tells a local story, inspired by the sounds of The Carter Family, on traditional instruments. The competition launches in January 2027.
Pickin’ Porch Photo Competition (March 27 – May 27, 2027)
Music has always started in everyday places. In 1914, A.P. Carter was out selling fruit trees when he heard Sara Dougherty playing her autoharp and singing a ballad called “Engine 143.” He met her, and the next June they were married. Open to people and music venues near and far, this contest celebrates that tradition of a person playing and singing outside their house. Entrants decorate a porch for the occasion, invite friends over to pick on it, or turn a venue into an old-time pickin’ porch, and capture the moment in a photo. The public will vote online in June, and winners receive tickets to the 2027 anniversary event.
“We celebrate the music that began a century ago, and we’re excited to hear what folks will create,” Stroud said. Full rules and permissions will be released later. Musicians, photographers and fans can sign up for contest details, important dates and reminders at carterfamilyfold.org.
About the Carter Family Fold
The Carter Family made their first recordings at the 1927 Bristol Sessions and became known as the “First Family of Country Music.” Founded in 1974 by Janette Carter, the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, preserves and shares the legacy of The Carter Family while bringing people together through live traditional music, history and community, with performances every Saturday night. Johnny Cash gave his final public performance on its stage in 2003, and artists including Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin have played there.
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