Unreleased WCYB Stanley Brothers recordings

21 hitherto unheard recordings...

After the exciting news about the restoration of an early Stanley Brothers WCYB Radio Transcription Disc, another set of 21 unreleased recordings has subsequently resurfaced.

From circa 1947-49, some of the recordings intially re-appeared on Steve Kilby's "Youtube" channel, and are likely to have originated from a cassette made for Art Wooten from a reel-to-reel tape at Rebel Records. Steve's youtube channel is now defunct, but thanks to the investigative work of Billy Q. Smith nine of the tracks are now back on youtube, and you can find all 21 MP3's as a 50mb zipped download.

The unreleased material will be of interest to hard-core Stanley fans, but as it's from old acetates, fidelity is variable.

Obscure highlights include: a partial recording of Just On The Other Shore which lasts just over 1 minute, and is something of a mystery, with the sacred song source as yet unidentified; and the fiddle tunes Cattle In The Corn (*), and March Winds which borrows heavily from Cumberland Gap.

As with the Live Again! and Stanley Brothers On WCYB Bristol releases, there is also plenty to enjoy with a partial early versions of Carter's Next Sunday Darling Is My Birthday (which wasn't captured on vinyl until May 1960 (King 5355)); a crackly partial This Wicked Path Of Sin (which appeared on Hymns And Sacred Songs in 1959); Careless Love (later recorded in 1964 for Remarkable Stanley Brothers Play And Sing Bluegrass Songs For You); and Six More Miles which Ralph didn't resurrect until his 1971 Something Old, Something New LP.

Thanks to Billy Q. Smith, as ever the most knowledgeable Stanley resource: Gary Reid!

NB: (*) Listen out for Carter's introduction to Cattle In The Corn where he calls the band the 'Blue Ridge Pardners' rather than the Clinch Mountain Boys!

According to the work done by Billy Q. Smith (with assistance from Gary Reid) there appears to be six surviving WCYB sessions:

Session A: Thought to be from late 1947 / early 1948. Carter Stanley (gtr), Ralph Stanley (bjo), Pee Wee Lambert (mnd), Leslie Keith (fid), Cousin Winesap (Ray Lambert) (bs).
Session B: Thought to be from late 1947 / early 1948. Carter Stanley (gtr), Ralph Stanley (bjo), Pee Wee Lambert (mnd), Leslie Keith (fid), Cousin Winesap (Ray Lambert) (bs).
Session C: Thought to be from November/December 1948. Carter Stanley (gtr), Ralph Stanley (bjo), Pee Wee Lambert (mnd), Art Wooten (fid).
Session D: Thought to be from November/December 1948. Carter Stanley (gtr), Ralph Stanley (bjo), Pee Wee Lambert (mnd), Art Wooten (fid).
Session E: Thought to be from November/December 1948. Carter Stanley (gtr), Ralph Stanley (bjo), Pee Wee Lambert (mnd), Art Wooten (fid).
Session F: Thought to be from January/June 1949. Carter Stanley (gtr), Ralph Stanley (bjo), Pee Wee Lambert (mnd), Bobby Sumner (fid).