The Stanley Brothers - The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys

(Mercury SFL 9085-6) 1971

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This Japanese 2xLP compilation of Mercury recordings included three tracks which hadn't at that time been released:- Close By, Will He Wait A Little Longer and If That's The Way You Feel.

If That's The Way You Feel was intended for release on the 1958 Mercury-Starday 71258 single, and early copies featured the title on the labels, but the actual disc contained a re-recording of A Life Of Sorrow which the Stanley's had cut at the same session. Live versions of If That's The Way You Feel also appear on the Stanley Series, Vol. 3 No. 4 recording from 7th Sept. 1958, where the Stanley Brothers feature the song in both sets. Carter introduces it as "And this is the real, 'If That's The Way You Feel'" in reference to the label mix-up, and at the end of the song adds "Thankyou friends, that's a new number coming out on LP album on Mercury Records, called 'If That's The Way You Feel'"... I guess Carter didn't figure on Mercury dropping the band shortly afterwards and it taking 13 years before his statement would come true...

Close By was recorded at the same session where the Stanley's cut Blue Moon Of Kentucky at the behest of Bill Monroe. Jimmy Martin had brought the song to Bill's attention and after it's author, Little Robert Van Winkle, had spent a week or two filling in with Blue Grass Boys, Monroe recorded Close By on the 26th June 1954. Although Bill's version wasn't released until 4th Oct 1954 he apparently liked the song so much that a couple of months after he had cut it he helped produce the Stanley Brothers version.^[1]

Will He Wait A Little Longer is a sacred number, which Ralph resurrected on his Cry From The Cross album - recorded a few months before this compilation. (It kind of begs the question, whether the preparation for this compilation may have given him the notion to re-record it.)

The album comes in a gatefold sleeve, with a 12" x 12" two page 'leaflet' with lyrics in English and Japanese, stuck to the centre of the gatefold. The picture of Ralph on the inner gatefold is from his 1971 Japanese tour - see the Live In Japan entry for more details.

Nowadays probably the best way to get all the Mercury material, including the aforementioned unreleased cuts, is on the 2xCD The Complete Mercury Recordings set.

For a detailed breakdown and background to these sessions, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 41-42, 45-51, 57-58, 60-64, 66-69, 71-74, 78 and 81.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] Neil V. Rosenberg and Charles K. Wolfe's book "The Music Of Bill Monroe" (p. 95, 110, 301). Bill Monroe's version of Close By was released with Blue Moon Of Kentucky on a single (Decca 29289) 4th Oct 1954, and later appeared on the 'Bill Monroe Sings Country Songs' LP (Vocalion VL 3702) 1964. More recently it can be found on the Bear Family 4xCD Box Set 'Bill Monroe: Bluegrass 1950-1958' (Bear Family BCD-15423) 1989.