The Stanley Brothers - Hymns Of The Cross

With George Shuffler

(King KLP-918) Jul 1964

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This gospel album was recorded 1-2nd April 1964 and features Earl Taylor on mandolin and George Shuffler on lead guitar. It was also the only original Stanley Brothers album to feature anyone other than Ralph and Carter on the front cover...

Ralph later revisited about half of the songs: Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Shoutin' On The Hills Of Glory, No Burdens Pass Through, Jesus Savior, Pilot Me, Beautiful Star Of Bethlehem all featured on some of his later albums... oh and of course, Oh Death...

Prior to the albums release one single was released:- John Three-Sixteen / A Crown He Wore (King 5902) May 1964; and another was issued a couple of months after the LP with:- Shoutin' On The Hills Of Glory / He's Passing This Way (King 5932) in Sept 1964.

There is a later Gusto/King reissue, which sounds ok, but has a very poor reproduction of the cover... It looks like they either didn't have the original artwork and had to re-photograph the sleeve, or that it's just very badly printed. If you look closely you can see that the reissue (or at least my copy) has an black border added at the top and right hand side of the cover.

The album was also reissued on CD (Gusto GT7-0635-2) 2008. Nowadays the material is probably best found on The King Years, 1961-1965 4xCD box set.

For detailed information on these songs / sessions, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 176-180, and 210-211.

Other artwork / related images: