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Ralph Stanley - Ralph Stanley Featuring Marty Stuart

(One Media Publishing no #) 2010

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This is an absolutely dreadful rip-off CD-R which Amazon and other outlets shouldn't sell. It basically consists of short extracts of live recordings of the CMB's, usually with stage introductions, and only has a total playing time of 18:05 mins. Each track fades out after about a minute of music, presumably in any attempt to avoid copyright issues.... and the actual 'music' playing time, once the introductions are excluded, is approximately just 11:30 mins!!

I've not been able to work out where these gigs were recorded, but it's clear that they are from the early-mid '70s with some from the Roy Lee Centers/Ricky Skaggs/Keith Whitley era, and others from Keith Whitley's time as lead singer.^[1] There's no evidence anywhere of any involvement with Marty Stuart, so I can only assume, whoever put this together doesn't know their arse from their elbow.

In additon to the ten live music samples, there's also a 3:39 min interview with Ralph, where the interviewers questions have been edited out and a montage of Stanley Brothers recordings overdubbed. Ralph's responses are as follows:-

Ralph:- "Carter and me we grew up you know way back in the sticks, in the country on a small farm. And ever since we were big enough to listen to old-time music, why we enjoyed it and we'd like to play it. And back in the late '30s we would listen to the Grand Ol' Opry, and we would take sticks and make us banjo's & fiddles and things out of 'em and 'play' behind the musicians on the radio, like we was playing with 'em y'know. And er, it's just natural I reckon that we liked that music and I guess that's the reason that we started into it and did make a career out of it".

Ralph:- "We just learned to play it our way and the way we felt it. And I think our music does differ from a lot of the bluegrass. I think our's is more of a mountain style and maybe you might call it more authentic, I don't know. It's just more of a mountain music".

Ralph:- "Bluegrass music is music with unamplified instruments, usually a five-string banjo, fiddle, mandolin, bass and a guitar. And it's a music with a drive to it and has the song right. Now Carter wrote more of the songs than I did. A lot of times the bluegrass songs I think are true to life. They could be maybe from an experience or something like that. A lot of them tell a story y'know".

Ralph:- "Well, we've recorded on several of the major record labels and we've played guest spots on the Grand Ol' Opry and some of the bigger barn dances like Wheeling West Virginia and Shreveport, Lousisiana, Old Dominion Barn Dance in Richmond, West Virginia and done a lot of travelling. I think during our Stanley Brothers period we toured about 42 states and some foreign countries".

Ralph:- "Well it was real hard to continue and at the time I didn't know what to do. I actually didn't know how I could do, how the public would feel about it. And after a few weeks, why after I'd begin to getting hundreds and hundreds of cards and letters asking me to do continue. And since I hadn't never done anything else except that, I didn't feel like I was qualified for anything else, and like I say all the letters and the public just about demanding it, I did keep on and it was about my only chance, even though it was hard for a while. By about it now, I've become adjusted to it and know it has to be so that's the way it is".

Ralph:- "Well I'll tell you about my most enjoyable time in this career is when I go of on a tour and come back successfuly, have a good trip, no bad luck, get back home with my family. That's my happiest days."

There is a companion CD-R to this, Ralph Stanley Featuring Ricky Skaggs & Keith Whitley which includes the same interview and the full version of nine of the tracks, plus one additonal song (Don't Cheat In Our Hometown)... but which omits the short 1 min sample of Stone Walls And Steel Bars.

To add further insult, three tracks are mis-titled, ie: Lonesome River is listed as Water Rolls High; That Lonesome Old Song is misidentified as What About You; and Take Your Shoes Off Moses has a typing error - Take Your Shoes Of Moses.

NB: The company behind these releases, 'One Media Publishing' is based in the UK and "specialises in acquiring and repackaging nostalgic music and TV programmes from recordings made over the last 90 years".^[2] Further digital re-packages of the material can also be found on Amazon including: 'Man Of Constant Music The Dave Cash Collection' (2011) and 'The Greatest Ralph Stanley' (2012), neither of which add anything new. Ralph Stanley Featuring Ricky Skaggs & Keith Whitley is the best of a bad bunch.

Thanks to Todd Gracyk for the corrections!

^{[1] The introductions are as follows... If anyone thinks they know the source of any of them, please get in touch via the Contact page:-
Little Birdie has the MC announcing "Here's Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys";
Man Of Constant Sorrow has Keith Whitley introducing Ralph saying: "Right now Ralph's gonna do a number he's been singing for a long time. He's had a lot of requests to do this, and it's a solo number entitled 'Man of Constant Sorrow'";
Lonesome River is introduced by Ralph saying "Right here's two young gentleman who're the youngest members of the group. I guess you can probably tell by lookin'. They've been with us now a little better than a year. They do a fine job of singing the old-timers. On the mandolin from Blaine, Kentucky is Ricky Skaggs and on the guitar from Sandy Hook is Keith Whitley. Give 'em a nice hand.";
Poor Rambler is introduced by Roy Lee Centers (I think) saying "How about a nice hand, for the one and only, Ralph Stanley";
Likewise Katy Daly has Roy Lee saying We'd like to do a song right now, a duet number that we have on an album, we have the album with us, the album's called 'Something Old, Something New' and the title of the song is 'Katy Daly' after which Ralph slightly off-mic says something like "???? we'd like to do this for Tennessee" and then somebody agrees saying "Yeah we sure would";
Take Your Shoes Off Moses has the MC announcing "Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, would you give them a nice hand" followed by heavy footsteps as the band enter the stage;
and Stone Walls And Steel Bars has Ralph saying "He was borned and raised and makes his home now in Sandy Hook, Kentucky, when he's not on the road. Colonel Keith Whitley, a big hand for him".
[2] http://onemediaip.com/about/}