Details
Track Listing
1. Vision of Mother, A
2. White Dove, The
3. Gathering Flowers For the Master's Bouquet
4. Angels Are Singing (In Heaven Tonight)
5. It's Never Too Late to Start Over
6. Have You Someone (In Heaven Waiting)
7. Little Glass of Wine
8. Let Me Be Your Friend
9. We'll Be Sweethearts in Heaven
10. I Love No One But You
11. Too Late to Cry
12. Old Home, The
13. Drunkard's Hell, The
14. Fields Have Turned Brown, The
15. Hey! Hey! Hey!
16. Lonesome River, The
17. I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow
18. Pretty Polly
19. Life of Sorrow, A
20. Sweetest Love
21. Wandering Boy, The
22. Let's Part the Best of Friends
Album Notes
The Stanley Brothers: Carter Stanley (vocals, guitar); Ralph Stanley (vocals, banjo).
Additional personnel: Darrell "Pee Wee" Lambert (vocals, mandolin); George Shuffler (vocals, fiddle, bass); Robert "Bobby" Sumner, Les Woodie (fiddle); James "Jay" Hughes, Ernest "Ernie" Newton (bass)
Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee between 1949 & 1952.
This is part of Legacy's Country Classics series.
This 22-song set brings together the complete recordings that Ralph and Carter Stanley made for Columbia Records between 1949 and 1952. In addition to collecting some of the Stanley Brothers' finest songs, this compilation is also an excellent representation of their inimitable bluegrass sound. With Ralph's superb banjo picking and angelic high tenor complementing Carter's acoustic guitar and clear, emotionally charged lead vocals, the Stanleys took the rootsy sound of Bill Monroe and brought it even deeper into the mountains, evoking the lonely ghost of early rural America.
There are songs here that burn with near-mythic power. Carter's baleful "I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow" and Ralph's grimly tragic "Pretty Polly" are two such examples. There are also songs of acute loneliness ("Too Late to Cry"), meditations on the afterlife ("Gathering Flowers for the Master's Bouquet"), and the occasional sprightly foot-stomper ("Hey! Hey! Hey!), each of which have the indelible feel of a classic. Though accompanied throughout by a bass, mandolin, and fiddle player, it is the dense, ringing harmonies and the sweet, aching quality of the songs that really dazzles. Beautifully restored sound and informative liner notes add to what is already a near-perfect collection.
Industry Reviews
...songs like `The Drunkard's Hell' may be haunted and traditionalist, but the tempos are often jumping and the screeched harmonies almost giddy with the possibilities postwar money had opened up...
Spin (06/01/1996)
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