Ralph Stanley - Sunday Morning

(Freeland Recording Co. FRC-CD640) 1992

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Recorded at sessions in May and October 1992 at Music Row Audio, Nashville, Tn. This is the Gospel/sacred half of the Saturday Night / Sunday Morning 2xCD set.

As might be expected given the different guest vocalists, the album is a bit uneven, but no doubt was commercially successful.

The Clinch Mountain Boys open the disc with an a cappella hymn I'll Pass Over Thee.

The Albert E. Brumley classic Rank Stranger had been recorded several times including The Stanley Brothers for Starday. Ralph had also cut a studio version on his I Want To Preach The Gospel LP.

Let Me Walk Lord By Your Side had been previously cut by The Stanley Brothers for both Mercury and King, and by Ralph for his Gospel Echoes Of The Stanley Brothers, plus with Jimmy Martin at the 1980 First Time Together sessions.

Bill Monroe's I'll Meet You In Church Sunday Morning had been recorded by The Stanley Brothers for King and in 1965 for Rimrock (appearing on the posthumous Empty Mansion, In Memory Of Carter Stanley LP).

Dwight Yoakam's Miner's Prayer was also later featured with Ralph on The Ralph Stanley Story DVD.

The Fields Have Turned Brown had been recorded by The Stanley Brothers at Columbia and also by Ralph on his I Want To Preach The Gospel LP.

Great High Mountain had been featured on Ralph's I Want To Preach The Gospel.

On Heaven's Bright Shore had been recorded by Ralph on his Snow Covered Mound LP and by The Marshall Family on Ralph's Live At The Old Homeplace LP.

Going Up Home To Live In Green Pastures had been cut on Ralph's Over The Sunset Hill and I Want To Preach The Gospel albums.

First Step To Heaven by Jim Rushing and Emory Gordy, and Sailing Home by Ralph don't appear to have been recorded before...

Angel Band had been cut by The Stanley Brothers for Mercury and Wango and by Ralph on I Want To Preach The Gospel. Ralph also re-recorded it later for Clinch Mountain Sweethearts. A live version by The Stanley Brothers appears on the Folk Festival 2xCD set.

Vision Of Mother had been cut by The Stanley Brothers during their tenure at Columbia.

Bill Monroe's The Old Cross Road had also been recorded by Ralph and Jimmy Martin in 1980 for their First Time Together album and by The Stanley Brothers for Wango.

Little Bessie had been cut by The Stanley Brothers for King, and a live-in-studio version can be found on the Old-Time Songs/An Evening Long Time Ago CDs. A live version by Ralph can also be found on the Live At Watermelon Park CD.

• Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocals
• Junior Blankenship: lead guitar
• Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
• Jack Cooke: bass
• Shelton Feazell: bass vocal
• Art Stamper: fiddle
• Ernie Thacker: guitar, mandolin vocals

NB: Liner notes don't specify instruments/vocal parts for individual tracks.

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