Jimmy Martin & Ralph Stanley - First Time Together

(Gusto GT0077) 1980

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The idea for this album came after Jimmy Martin had joined Ralph on stage at Joe Cline's Broadway Ohio Bluegrass Festival in 1979, and shortly afterwards approached Gusto's Moe Lytle with the idea of a joint recording. It was recorded at Gusto's studios in Nashville, Tn. on 3-4th March 1980 (or possibly February 1980 - the liner notes to Poor Rambler quote both months).

Twelve tracks were recorded but only eight made it onto the initial release, which also included the 1969 version of Darling Brown Eyes from Ralph's Hills Of Home LP (also featuring Jimmy Martin on guitar), and a version of Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die, which seems to come from a different Jimmy Martin session.

The album was reissued on CD (Hollywood HCD-175) 1995 and (Gusto GT-3002-2) 2004. The 1995 CD had the same track list as the original LP, but the 2004 reissue replaced Stone Walls And Steel Bars, Darling Brown Eyes and I Only Exist with three songs from the 1980 session: I'm Coming Back But I Don't Know When, The Old Crossroad and Sunny Side Of The Mountain. These had all first appeared along with Let Me Walk Lord By Your Side as 'unreleased' cuts on the 3xCD Poor Rambler set, which contained all twelve tracks from the session, albeit spread out across three discs.

It's difficult to be certain, as Jimmy didn't otherwise release this Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die, but it doesn't sound like Ralph participated in this recording and as it's not featured on the Poor Rambler set, which lists all the masters cut at the session, it seems likely that this was not part of the original session with Ralph.

Ralph:- "With Jimmy, every ounce of pride came from being a musician. I'll tell you a story about how serious Jimmy took his music. Jimmy was a pro; when it came to making a record, he was all business. I recorded an album with Jimmy for King Records in the late sixties. Singing with Jimmy was always easy; he knew his part and I knew mine. We cut the album in just a few hours and the King studio people were surprised we done it so quick. Jimmy said, 'Well, I reckon it pays to have somebody that knows what they're doing'. He took pride in doing his job right."^[1]

• Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocals
• Jimmy Martin: guitar, vocals
• Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
• Glenn Davis: drums
• Vernon Derrick: mandolin
• Earl Gray: bass
• Kenny Ingram: banjo

NB: Liner notes don't specify instruments/vocal parts for individual tracks, so the above is guesswork.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean's book 'Man Of Constant Sorrow' (p. 370)