When you picture a lead guitarist, you probably do not imagine a teenage girl in 1920s rural Appalachia. Yet that is where the guitar was first pushed from the rhythm section to the front of the stage. This deep dive looks past the matronly nickname Mother Maybelle to reveal a relentless innovator: born Maybelle Addington in Nickelsville, Virginia, in 1909, she studied guitar from age 13, married Ezra Carter in 1926, and in 1927 formed the original Carter Family with A.P. and Sara Carter just as record scouts hauled portable recording machines into the mountains.

We break down the mechanics of the Carter Scratch, the thumb-led style that let her play melody on the bass strings while brushing rhythm on the treble strings, along with the reverse picking she learned from Leslie Riddle, her flat-picking and slide techniques, and the 1932 sessio ...