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Clinch Mountain Echo

The Stanley Brothers - Our Darlings Gone / The Jealous Lover

(Rich-R-Tone RRT-435) c1948


Our Darlings Gone
The Jealous Lover

This 78 was recorded at the Stanley's second session for Rich-R-Tone at the WOPI radio station in Bristol Tn., sometime late 1947 or early 1948.

According to Gary B. Reid's liner notes to the Earliest Recordings: The Complete Rich-R-Tone 78s, Our Darlings Gone was written by a woman whose husband was killed in a mining accident. She wrote a poem about her family's life since her husband's death and mailed it to the Stanley Brothers who composed a melody for it. The Stanley Brothers later re-recorded the song on their The Remarkable Stanley Brothers Play And Sing Bluegrass Songs For You album.

The Jealous Lover is an old murder ballad, which Carter introduced on The Stanley Brothers On WCYB Bristol as "...one that you'd have to hunt way back through the old song books to find". It seems to have been a variation of Pearl Bryan which told the gruesome story of the murder of Pearl Bryan in 1896. Her body was found decapitated in Fort Thomas, Kentucky and her corpse identified by her shoes.[1]

On this session for Rich-R-Tone, the Stanley's didn't have a bass player, and Ralph was playing banjo in 2-finger style.

Both sides of the Stanley's 78 can be found on the Earliest Recordings: The Complete Rich-R-Tone 78s CD.

 

For a detailed breakdown and background to the Stanley's session, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 13-14 and 18.

Track:
Title:
Time:
Date:
Original Release:
Guitar:
Banjo:
Fiddle:
Mandolin:
A-1
Our Darling's Gone
02:14
Late 1947 / Early 1948
Rich-R-Tone RRT-435 Carter Stanley
Ralph Stanley
Leslie Keith
Pee Wee Lambert

C. Stanley
B-1
The Jealous Lover
02:14
Late 1947 / Early 1948
Rich-R-Tone RRT-435 Carter Stanley
Ralph Stanley
Leslie Keith
Pee Wee Lambert

C. Stanley

Go To Top Of Page [1] See http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=3817 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Pearl_Bryan. A more detailed account of the murder can be found along with a recording of Pearl Bryan by R.D. Burnett and Leonard Rutherford, here:- http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2012/01/mysteries-of-pearl-bryan.html