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The Stanley Brothers - Memory Of Your Smile / Suwannee River Hoedown

(King 5210) Jun 1959

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This 7" was released about three months after the classic The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys LP (King 615), which featured The Memory Of Your Smile.

'Billboard' magazine reviewed the disc in their 1st June 1959 edition, with Memory... getting 3-stars and being described as:- "Plaintive vocalising on a moving weeper. Worth rural spins". The flpside, Suwannee River Hoedown got 2-stars and was summed up as:- "Bouncy hoedown is wrapped up in lively fiddle solo work."^[1]

The Memory Of Your Smile is a splendid bar-room bluegrass tale of the pain of being dumped by your gal, with soulful vocals from Carter. As with all the previously unpublished songs released on the early King period, it was credited to Ralph and Carter's half-sister Ruby Rakes, but was later credited to Ralph and Carter on Ralph's 1981 The Memory Of Your Smile LP and to Carter alone on the 2001 Clinch Mountain Sweethearts CD. The instrumental, Suwannee River Hoedown, was similarly credited to Ruby Rakes but written by Chubby Anthony and Carter Stanley.

Suwannee River Hoedown, was recorded at the end of the sessions for the gospel LP Hymns And Sacred Songs in Feb 1959. It was later included on the Stanley's In Person album in Nov 1960.

Both sides of the 7" can now be found on The Early Starday/King Years, 1958-1961 4xCD box set.

PS: For the banjo players, Suwannee River Hoedown is in 'D' tuning (f# D F# A D)... and there's good banjo tab for it on Gary Bates's (aka Stanleytone) page on the banjohangout.

For a detailed breakdown and background to the Stanley's sessions, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, 91-92, 94-95, 139 and 140-141.

^{[1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CiAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50&dq=billboard+stanley+brothers+Memory+of+your+smile&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd0feN0O3UAhWiLsAKHX20DKsQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=billboard%20stanley%20brothers%20Memory%20of%20your%20smile&f=false}