Stanley Brothers
michael mahoney
midnight train'. The former covering 1949 to 1952 and the latter taking
tracks from 1958-1961.
Frankly, I love the former with it's mournful tone but find the latter a bit
too upbeat and slick.
My question is - What proportion of the 1953 to 1958 (complete recordings
available on the Bearfamily label) are of a mournful reflective nature or
are they more like the later King/ Starday recordings.
Any thoughts very gratefully appreciated.
Todd A. Gracyk
If you like the sound of the Stanley Brothers on Columbia (1949-1952), you
are apt to be interested in their Rich-R'-Tone recordings (1947-1948 &
1952).
Since you don't seem to care for some of the Stanleys' best King and Starday
sides (1958-1961), I'm not sure what you'll make of their Mercury and Blue
Ridge recordings (1953-1958 & 1959).
I'd agree that the Columbia sides are mournful. Having said that, while
with Columbia the brothers had not reached their potential in terms of
songwriting and Ralph Stanley clearly had not reached his potential as a
banjoist or vocalist.
It is often argued that the single greatest batch of recordings made by the
Stanley Brothers were waxed on September 9, 1953. These 4 sides were made
for Mercury:
(Say) Won't You Be Mine
This Weary Heart You Stole Away
I'm Lonesome Without You
Our Last Goodbye
Over the next 5 years the Stanleys cut an additional 42 sides for Mercury
and I'd say that a dozen of them are as excellent as the above mentioned 4
songs. These are:
Poison Lies
Could You Love Me (One More Time)
Nobody's Love Is Like Mine
Say You'll Take Me Back
You'd Better Get Right
Loving You Too Well
Let Me Walk, Lord, By Your Side
Harbor Of Love
Will He Wait A Little Longer
Angel Band
The Cry From The Cross
A Lonesome Night
Are the Mercurys upbeat and slick? We'll, I'd say over half of the above
mentioned 16 tracks are upbeat, but I can't define slick. There are no
overdubs like are heard on the 1961 King cover of Hank Ballard's "Finger
Poppin' Time."
Are the Mercurys high, lonesome? You betcha! Mournful, reflective? "Could
You Love Me (One More Time)" and "A Lonesome Night" would certainly fall
into that category.
The 1959 Blue Ridge sides are the standards "Meet Me Tonight" and "Nobody's
Business." The former is somewhat mournful and reflective.
I don't like every single Stanley Brothers recording made for Starday and
King but many of the early ones, from 1958 to 1961, are among their
strongest work ever. These would include:
Gonna Paint The Town
That Happy Night
Ridin' That Midnight Train
Another Night
How Mountain Girls Can Love
Your Selfish Heart
Think Of What You've Done
Trust Each Other
Clinch Mountain Backstep
The Memory Of Your Smile
Love Me Darling, Just Tonight
Let Me Love You One More Time
If I Lose
The Darkest Hour Is Just Before The Dawn
Let The Church Roll On
Rank Stranger
I'd Worship You
I'll Just Go Away
The Starday and King collection "Ridin' That Midnight Train" features most
of these songs. It also has a few tracks that I am not keen on ("How Far To
Little Rock," "The Drunken Driver," "The Wild Side Of Life," "Finger Poppin'
Time," and "You're Still To Blame"). I'm not big on the 2 incarceration
songs, either ("Shackles And Chains" and "My Main Trial Is Yet To Come").
Todd A. Gracyk
Petaluma, CA
ta...@home.com
Todd A. Gracyk
In the search for mournful consider the Stanley Brothers CD "Old-Time
Songs," Stanleytone 5001. Technically, this CD is a bootleg but Ralph
Stanley sells them at his concert appearances. This CD doesn't feature a
mailing address or a phone number. Copper Creek may still have a few copies
for sale:
"Old-Time Songs" features 20 tracks recorded by Larry Ehrlich during a late
night, makeshift session in March of 1956. Fiddler Ralph Mayo and
mandolinist Curley Lambert help out on most of the songs. All but "Darling
Do You Know Who Loves You" and "Orange Blossom Special" are older, folksy
type numbers; several are standards that the Stanley later recorded and/or
performed in concert. Ralph Stanley plays mandolin, rather than banjo, on
"East Virginia Blues." There is a snippet of "Little Bessie" here that is
simply haunting. There is a little bit of banter on a few of the
selections.
"Old-Time Songs" clocks in at about 47 minutes, has 6 pages of liner notes,
and features a few nice photographs. There are no song credits given and
the author of the liner notes is not identified.
Charley Pennell
classics every bit as "mournful" as the Columbias (I virtually wore
through my old Collector's Classics reissue LP of these) are available
on a budget 1995 reissue CD, Mercury 314-528 191-2, Angel band, the
classic Mercury recordings. The late John Fahey's Revenant label has
reissued the Rich-R-Tone recordings on Revenant 203: Earliest
recordings, the complete Rich-R-Tone 78s (1947-1952), which many of us
still have on the old Melodeon LP MLP-7322. These might be easier to
find (and cheaper) than the Bear Family recordings, although the Bear
Family series all have excellent discographies and notes, and are
excellent recordings. I will note that I have the King recordings that
you note and they can sometimes be hard to listen to for too long at a
time, simply because of the heavy lead guitar and formulaic singing that
occurs towards the second half of the set. King was trying to get a lot
of their classic bluegrass acts to cross-over into more lucrative
markets at the time, and there was always the temptation to stick to a
proven successful formula. The King Reno & Smiley set suffers from the
same problem, although again, there are gems in both of these King sets.
_______________________________________________________________________
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Charley Pennell mailto:cpen...@unity.ncsu.edu
Head, Cataloging Department voice: (919)515-2743
NCSU Libraries, Box 7111 fax: (919)515-7292
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
Adjunct Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland
World Wide Web: http://www.ibiblio.org/hillwilliam/chuckhome.html
Cataloguer's Toolbox: http://www.mun.ca/library/cat/
_______________________________________________________________________
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""