How does a gifted guitar maker honor the father of country music? Build a guitar in his name, of course. Tony Vines, Luthier Extraordinaire, from Kingsport, Tennessee has done just that, crafting a beautiful replica of the Martin guitar Alvin Pleasant (A.P.) Carter owned and used to write and arrange songs. But that is just the beginning of the story.

In 1999, Tony Vines decided that A.P. Carter, the "Father of Country Music," should be recognized with a guitar named after him. For A.P. Carter was the “brains” behind the original Carter Family’s success. He wandered the hills and hollers of Appalachia listening to, collecting and arranging songs passed down through the generations. He walked up and down the railroad tracks in Maces Springs, Virginia (now Hiltons), head down, hands clasped behind him, lost in thought about hardscrabble Appalachian life. He wrote and arranged songs about this life and his love of God. For him, the love of God and love of music could not be separated.

Tony Vines then met Joe Carter, son of A.P. Carter in Hiltons, Virginia at the famous Carter Family Fold, and they became fast friends. A year later, Tony introduced to Joe the idea of building a collector guitar to honor his father. Joe was enthusiastic, especially because Tony would build the guitar from a tree on A.P. Carter's homeplace.

Joe had a keen eye for spotting trees. In July 2001, he informed Tony he had found the “right tree,” a huge black walnut tree standing tall on the Holston River bank at Hiltons. A month later, they cut the giant tree, trimmed its gnarly limbs and let it air dry for thirty days. On September 11, 2001, they loaded the log onto a truck and hauled it to Jack Cunningham’s sawmill. They debarked the log, cut it into eight-foot sections and quarter-sawed it, keeping the grain vertical to make the wood stable. They put the log sections in a kiln dryer for thirty days, making sure it dried slowly and evenly to prevent case-hardening.

Then Tony sorted the beautiful black walnut boards, picking out the best quality boards for twenty to twenty-five sets of sides and backs for the A.P. Carter guitars. He stored the boards for six years, and has just built the first guitar in the style of A.P. Carter’s Martin. He is excited about this beautiful guitar for the music history it represents and its powerful tone. One can almost hear the deep vibrato of A.P. Carter's voice spilling out of the sound hole. Tony is also excited about offering this first A.P. Carter guitar for a Guitar Raffle for Clinch Mountain MusicFest (2008).

The guitar has a certificate of authenticity signed by Joe Carter and Tony Vines stating where the wood came from, an internal label signed by Joe Carter, and a photocopy of A.P. Carter’s signature taken from a deed to property he owned in Maces Springs.