ROOTS of Country Music

Cousin Emmy & Her Kinfolks

With a Banjo On Her Knee: The Cousin Emmy Story

(Mar. 14, 1911 -- Apr. 11, 1980)

Cousin Emmy’s banjo playing has been described as a hard, fast-driving eastern Kentucky frailing style. Her stage presence was apparently electric, as she danced, strutted and strummed just as she had in the tobacco fields years ago. Even over the radio, her dynamic style surged over the airwaves.

Cousin Emmy (b. Cynthia May Carver) was a colorful performer who sang old-timey and sentimental songs and who wrote one of the best-known songs in the bluegrass field, Ruby (Are You Mad At Your Man). She began her career playing the five-string banjo with her cousins, Bozo and Warner Carver on WHB in Kansas City.

In 1935, she was featured act with Frankie More's Log Cabin Boys on WHAS in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1937, Cousin Emmy was part of the Wheeling WWVA (WV) Jamboree, where she met and tutored with Grandpa Jones on five-string banjo. Cousin Emmy appeared on the Old Kentucky Barn Dance, Louisville, KY (1939 -- 1940).

In 1941, she became a featured act on KMOX in St. Louis, Missouri. She also worked on WAGA, Atlanta, Georgia, WNOX, Knoxville, Tennessee and WSB, Atlanta, Georgia. In 1943, Cousin Emmy was featured in Time Magazine.

Her stage dress was a baggy gingham dress, white stockings and ankle boots along with platinum blond hair, which was held in place by bright colored ribbons. Cousin Emmy was a star in a time and era where it was very difficult for women to break into show business. The following are some of her performances on radio WHAS, Louisville, KY.

Ground Hog: Song sung and played on banjo by Cousin Emmy (Barren County, Kentucky) on radio demonstration recording of Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver) and Her Kinfolks, WHAS, Louisville, Kentucky, Sep. 12, 1939.

Little Joe: Song sung and played on banjo by of Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver of Barren County, Kentuck) and Her Kinfolks on radio program, WHAS, Louisville, Kentucky, Oct. 2, 1940.

Lost John: Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver), Song sung and played on harmonica by Cousin Emmy (Barren County, Kentucky), radio demonstration recording of Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver) and Her Kinfolks, WHAS, Louisville, KY, Sep. 1, 1939.

Mother's Grave: Song sung and played on banjo by Cousin Emmy (Barren County, Kentucky) on radio demonstration recording of Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver) and Her Kinfolks, WHAS, Louisville, Kentucky, Sep. 12, 1939.

Ruby: Song sung and played on banjo by Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver of Barren County, KY) and Her Kinfolks on radio program, WHAS, Louisville, KY, Oct. 2, 1940.

Saint Louis Blues: Song sung and played by the Collard Brothers on radio demonstration recording of Cousin Emmy (Barren County, Kentucky) (Cynthia Mae Carver) and Her Kinfolks for WHAS, Louisville, Kentucky, Sep. 12, 1939.

Sowing on the Mountain Reaping in the Valley: Song sung by Cousin Emmy on radio demonstration recording of Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver) (Barren County, Kentucky) and Her Kinfolks, WHAS, Louisville, Kentucky, Sep. 12, 1939.

Truck Drivers' Blues: Song sung by the Collard Brothers of Cousin Emmy (Cynthia Mae Carver of Barren County, Kentuck) and Her Kinfolks on radio program on WHAS, Louisville, Kentucky, 10-2-40.

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Researched and written by Richard Bell, Country Music Historian, Roots of Country Music. Feb. 3, 2011.