After leaving Centenary, Carter began his professional career in the 1950s, his first partner in music was another Franklin Parish native, Allen "Puddler" Harris.
While on the Hayride, he formed lifelong friendships with many musicians including Slim Whitman, Floyd Cramer, Sonny James, Hank Snow, Faron Young, Johnny Horton, Jim Reeves and many others.
He also played guitar and bass on the Bob Dylan albums Self Portrait and Nashville Skyline; as well as on the Connie Francis hit single, "The Wedding Cake".
Production credits for Carter include Levon Helm's American Son album on MCA Records,[2] and Bobby Bridger's "Heal in the Wisdom".
This band was composed of Helm, Carter, Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, and the NBC Saturday Night Live horns.
Carter also played with Helm on The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album with Garth Hudson, Paul Butterfield, Bob Margolin, Pinetop Perkins Howard Johnson (on sax) He played the fiddle, when Sissy Spacek performed the song "Some small Crime", written by her, together with Levon Helm in the 1980 TV show The Midnight Special.
[3] He also played guitar and mandolin in that Midnight Special episode on more songs from the 1980 movie Coal Miner's Daughter [4] [5] He had small roles in several films including The Adventures of Huck Finn starring Elijah Wood.