Lester Pate & Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys - Keep My Love With You

(No label C-5759) 1992

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This cassette was mentioned in the November 1992 edition of Bluegrass Unlimited, and reviewed the following April.

Lester plays banjo on all the cuts, except the instrumentals Cuttin' The Cornbread and Floggin' The Five String (aka Black Eyed Susie), which feature Ralph on clawhammer. Ernie Thacker sings most of the lead vocals (six tracks) with Ralph on tenor. Eddie Wheeler sings lead on the The Prisoner's Song and Ralph sings lead on In Heaven We'll Never Grow Old.

Five of the tracks are instrumentals: Cuttin' The Cornbread, Floggin' The Five String, Sally Gooden, John Henry and Bill Napier's mandolin opus Daybreak In Dixie.

Lester's banjo style is similar to Ralph's but is a bit more repetitive / amateurish.

The title track Keep My Love With You had first been cut on Ralph's Sing Michigan Bluegrass LP in 1971.

Lester Davis Pate was from Boones Mill, in Franklin County, Va. He was born 12th Sept 1944 and died 1st June 2003 aged 58.^[1] He was given a Congressional Commendation by Virginia in 2002, which tells us that he was a member of Boones Mill Town Council and an active member of the Masonic Lode and Ruritan Club. He had played banjo for 44 years, and had played with "Bill Monroe, Roni Stoneman, Lewis Family Done Reno & Red Smiley, Jim Eanes, John Conlee and Dr. Ralph Stanley, with whom he has made two recordings." The Commendation also tells us that he was made an Honorary Clinch Mountain Boy on 12th May 2001.^[2]

In his obituary in 'Bluegrass Unlimited' it mentioned that Lester died at his home in Boones Mill, after a year-long fight with cancer, and made his last live appearance in Aptil 2003. The obit. adds that in the '70s he played in the 'Bluegrass Gospel Quartet' that broadcast on Blackburg's radtio station WKEX.^[3]

The album was recorded at Maggard Sound in Big Stone Gap, Va.

• Ralph Stanley: banjo
• Lester Pate: banjo
• Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
• Jack Cooke: bass
• Junior Blankenship: guitar
• Ernie Thacker: mandolin, vocals

Other artwork / related images:

[1] various web searches inc. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=45777129
[2] https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?021+ful+HJ21ER+pdf
[3] 'Bluegrass Unlimited' - General Store section Oct. 2003 (p. 14)