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The Stanley Brothers - This Weary Heart You Stole Away / I'm Lonesome Without You

(Mercury 70217) Sep 1953

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This was the Stanley's first release for Mercury, marking the start of a very creative period for the band, and which has certainly stood the test of time.

Carter's This Weary Heart You Stole Away (Wake Up, Sweetheart was later re-recorded by Ralph on his Singing Sixteen Years/Can't You Hear The Mountains Calling album, and also features on the Keith Whitley & Ricky Skaggs Second Generation Bluegrass LP and Ernie Thacker & Ralph Stanley Holdin' On release.

I'm Lonesome Without You was also later re-recorded by Ralph on his Old Home Place and the Stanley Brothers Classics - Introducing James King albums.

I can't find any definitive info on the single's release date, but September 1953 seems reasonable, as the 5th Sept edition of 'Billboard' mentions "The Stanley Brothers who recently recorded for Mercury, are at WCYB, Bristol Va."^[1]

Ralph:- "Our first session from Mercury was one of those times when everything goes right, and you go right along with it. You don't rightly know where it comes from, and you don't ask. We had the songs, we had the musicians, and we had the sound. I believe it was the beginning of the Stanley Sound we became known for. I can't explain it too well, but there was drive in our playing we'd never had before."^[2]

Both sides of the release can now be found on The Complete Mercury Recordings 2xCD set.

For a detailed breakdown and background to the Stanley's sessions, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, 41-42 and 71.

^{[1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0woEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45&dq=stanley+brothers+billboard+1953&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVpOne4ffUAhXjDMAKHaoLCd4Q6AEIQjAG#v=onepage&q=stanley%20brothers%20billboard%201953&f=false
[2] Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean's 'The Man Of Constant Sorrow' (p. 172 - 199). In the book Ralph says "winter of 1953" but it was 1952.}