Ralph Stanley - Classic Stanley

(Freeland Recording Co. FRC-CD-9002) 1995

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There are two versions of this excellent compilation of live material from the early '70s. The first has the artwork reversed, so the band picture appears on the back of the CD tray and the track titles appear on the front sheet. This version also has a typo showing Death Is Only A Dream as "Death Is Only A Dram" on the track list. It also has 2 seconds of 'dead space' at the end of each disc. The two versions are from different manufacturers, as they have different matrix numbers. There is also very slightly different disk artwork.

The live material is drawn from recordings made at:

1. Gettysburg, PA - 1970
2. Carlton Haney's Labor Day Weekend festival at Camp Springs, Reidsville, NC - September 1971
3. Unknown 'Festival Season' - 1971
4. McClure, VA - May 1972
5. Luray, VA - 5th May 1973
6. McClure, VA - 25th May 1975
7. Berryville, VA - 2nd July 1976

The 5 tracks taken from the Camps Springs 1971 festival were previously issued by Ralph as part of the Volume 1 (Recorded Live In 1971) cassette. I believe that Volume 2 also contains material that's resurfaced on this CD, but don't have any details. The Camp Springs performance is from the festival that has been immortalised on the Bluegrass Country Soul film/dvd. Roy Lee was absent from this performance as one of his sons was critically ill in hospital. ^[1]

The McClure, VA 25th May 1975 recordings were presumably from the festival tapes that resulted in the Live! At McClure album.

In addition to the live cuts, the CD also includes a couple of rehearsal recordings from Feb 1971 and two unreleased studio recordings (a 1971 re-recording of In Memory Of Carter Stanley and Blue Yodel #3 - neither feature Ralph and Roy Lee Centers plays banjo).

The material on these two disc has also been released seperately as Classic Gospel and Classic Mountain Music.

NB: (a) Ralph sings tenor and Roy Lee sings lead on the 1st & 2nd verse/chorus, Ricky Skaggs sings tenor and Keith Whitley sings lead on the 3rd verse/chorus. (b) Roy Lee sings lead on the 1st & 3rd verse / 1st, 2nd & 3rd Chorus; Ralph sings tenor on the 1st, 2nd & 4th chorus; Keith Whitley sings lead on the 2nd verse & 3rd Chorus; and Ricky Skaggs sings tenor on the 3rd chorus.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] On the Volume 1 (Recorded Live In 1971) cassette Ralph says after Little Maggie "I'd like to tell you that Roy Lee Centers, that's usually with us is er.., one of his children had a bad accident Tuesday night and is in the hospital in a real critical condition, he couldn't be with us, so Keith Whitley is standing in and doing a fine job in Roy Lee's place."