Ralph Stanley - Live In Japan

(Seven Seas SR 690/691) 1971 / (Rebel REB 2202) 1986

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Recorded in Tokyo on the 5th May 1971, this was the final concert of a ten date tour organised by Dick Freeland of Rebel Records. Dick used his distribution contacts to arrange the tour and also produced a colour tour programme.

Dick: "It was an interesting tour, it really was. It was a ground breaker in a lot of ways. We weren't the first bluegrass group to go, I think Flatt and Scruggs had gone prior to that, but we were the first ones to do any business so to speak. We got to a lot of people that we ordinarily wouldn't have gotten to. While we were there we did the Japanese version of the 'Today Show'. We were the first American bluegrass group to do that national TV in japan. Of course that was good publicity. We worked San Francisco and Oklahoma City on the way back. It was a nice little tour, maybe ten days all together."^[1]

The album was initially only issued as a double LP in Japan, but subsequently was reissued on vinyl by Rebel in 1986, and again on CD in 1997.

Regarded by many fans as a classic... The band were firing on all cylinders at this time, completing not only this live LP, but also the John Henry LP the following day. Indeed 1971 resulted in a total of twelve albums one way or another (if you count the Curly Ray and Whitley/Skaggs LPs).

In some respects the recording sounds a bit 'formal' compared to unofficial 'Stateside' live recordings, but is definitely a must-have item.

After the band returned to the 'States, they played San Francisco, with a set broadcast on the KPFA Radio from Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, Ca. on the 7th May. ^[2]

Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley, were still finishing school at the time, so they had to miss the trip (and I guess the added expense of flights etc may have figured into the equation too).

It's interesting that Ralph played a flathead rather than an archtop banjo on this tour, presumably not wanting to risk any in-flight damage to his old Gibson... Bluegrass Unlimited - 'Notes & Queries' (December 1989) later reported:-

More recently, Stanley sleuth, Chris Smith solved the mystery surrounding this banjo and it's current location in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in Owensboro, Kentucky. For more info see his article for Bluegrass Today.

For more pictures from the tour, see Fred Robbins' website. Also see this excellent audio set from Kyoto 2nd May 1971.

• Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocals
• Roy Lee Centers: guitar, vocals
• Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
• Jack Cooke: bass

Other artwork / related images:

[1] Liner notes to the Rebel CD reissue. Flatt & Scruggs had played in Japan in 1968.
[2] us.archive.org or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MyyIn6HMQg