Clinch Mountain Echo

CMB Birthdays this month:

04 Feb 1972 - Steve Sparkman. Harlan, Kentucky.

04 Feb 1906 - Art Wooten. Born 'Arthur James Wooten' in Alleghany, North Carolina.

11 Feb 1960 - Junior Blankenship. Born at the old Grundy Hospital, Grundy, Va.

25 Feb 1927 - Ralph Stanley. Born 'Ralph Edmund Stanley' in Big Spraddle Creek, near Stratton, McClure, Virginia.

29 Feb 1932 - Jim Williams. Born 'James Lee Williams' in Wythe County, Virginia.


In Memoriam:

05 Feb 1980 - Chubby Anthony. Gainesville, Alachua, Florida.

08 Feb 2003 - Ralph 'Joe' Meadows. Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland.

08 Feb 1987 - Harold 'Red' Stanley. Fentress, Tennessee.


For the Official Ralph Stanley II and the Clinch Mountain Boys site, visit:

Ralph II ralph2.com

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Clinch Mountain Echo

Ralph Stanley - A Mother's Prayer

(Rebel REB-CD-1840) 2010


A Mother's Prayer

Average Album Rating: 3.4
(Total votes 5)

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Another Gospel release that I presume was recorded in 2010 as the liner notes are dated September 2010 and Steve Sparkman left the band in November. It was recorded at Maggard Sound Studios in Big Stone Gap, Va. and released in 2011.

John Rigsby and Shelton Feazell guest on the album, with John mostly singing tenor and mandolin, and Shelton singing bass on four cuts. Shelton had previously sang on Back To The Cross, Saturday Night / Sunday Morning and Christmas Time With....

John Rigsby sings lead on one track - That Home Far Away, which The Stanley Brothers recorded for King, and which is probably one of the best tracks on a rather uneven album.

He Suffered For My Reward features Nathan Stanley on guitar who wrote the song and recorded it with his 'paw-paw' in 2007 on He Suffered For My Reward.

The liner notes by Colin Escott won him an IBMA award. He had previously written liner notes for the Echoes Of The Stanley Brothers CD, and the Early Classics: The King Recordings compilation.

In the liner notes Colin reveals that the story behind Come All Ye Tenderhearted was based on a true event c1872, when Frances Jane Ratliff McCormack from Carter County, Ky. lost her two children in a house fire. Someone wrote a ballad about the tragedy, which was picked up as The Carter County Fire Ballad or Two Little Girls before The Stanley Brothers picked it up from an old hymn book.[1] The version here is perfomed more or less solo, with Ralph's rather ragged voice accompanied by bowed bass-fiddle.

Prince Of Peace an old obscure hymnal, Blind Willie Johnson's John The Revelator and That Wonderful Place are all similarly performed unaccompanied by Ralph.

Lift Him Up, That's All had previously been recorded by Ralph in 2002 for his Ralph Stanley CD. Colin Escott writes that it's composer Washington Phillips was an African American farmer and storefront preacher from Freestone County, Tx, who was recorded singing the song in 1927 in a Dallas Hotel room. The version here is again performed solo, with some picked guitar accompaniment in the choruses by James Alan Shelton.

Some of the tracks are written by contemporary bluegrassers. The title track A Mother's Prayer was written by the Lonesome River Band's Ronnie Bowman and Terry Smith from The Grascals helped compose Let It Go.

Dewey Brown, the CMB's fiddler since 2005, wrote Let Him Into Your Heart and Ralph's sister-in-law Floda Neal contributes That Wonderful Place.

Rebel released a 6 minute video to help promote the release of the album which can be seen on youtube. This also includes a couple of brief snippets of Ralph and the CMB's from a gig in Pound, Va circa 1971/72.

  • Ralph Stanley: vocals
  • Dewey Brown: fiddle
  • Jimmy Cameron: bass
  • Shelton Feazell: bass vocal
  • John Rigsby: mandolin
  • James Alan Shelton: lead guitar
  • Steve Sparkman: banjo
  • Nathan Stanley: guitar (*)
  • Ralph II Stanley: guitar, vocals

NB: (*) Nathan plays on one track, He Suffered For My Reward.

 

Track:
Title:
Time:
Date:
Original Release:
A-1
That Home Far Away
02:28
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Ruby Rakes
  Tn Vcl Gtr Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Ld Vcl - Mnd    
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
   
A-2
It's Time To Wake Up
02:36
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Marvin E. Morrow
  Ld Vcl Gtr Bt Vcl - Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Tn Vcl - Mnd Bs Vcl  
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
Shelton Feazell  
A-3
Come All Ye Tenderhearted
02:44
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

P.D. arr R. Stanley
  Ld Vcl Fid              
  Ralph Stanley
Dewey Brown
             
A-4
Let Him Into Your Heart
02:13
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Dewey Brown
  Ld Vcl Gtr Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Mnd    
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
   
A-5
A Mother's Prayer
04:19
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Ronnie Bowman / Shawn Lane
  Ld Vcl Gtr Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Tn Vcl - Mnd    
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
   
A-6
Prince Of Peace
02:28
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

P.D. arr R. Stanley
  Ld Vcl                
  Ralph Stanley
               
A-7
Are You Washed In The Blood
02:42
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Elisha Hoffman
  Ld Vcl Gtr Bt Vcl - Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Tn Vcl - Mnd Bs Vcl  
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
Shelton Feazell  
A-8
Lift Him Up, That's All
03:10
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Washington Phillips
  Ld Vcl Gtr              
  Ralph Stanley
James Alan Shelton
             
A-9
He Suffered For My Reward
02:30
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Nathan Stanley
  Ld Vcl Gtr Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Tn Vcl - Mnd    
  Ralph Stanley
Nathan Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
   
A-10
Let It Go
03:29
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Sara Evans / Billy Smith / Terry Smith
  Ld Vcl Gtr Bt Vcl - Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Tn Vcl - Mnd Bs Vcl  
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
Shelton Feazell  
A-11
That Wonderful Place
02:21
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Floda Neal
  Ld Vcl                
  Ralph Stanley
               
A-12
I'll Not Be Afraid
04:06
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Marvin E. Morrow
  Ld Vcl Gtr Bt Vcl - Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Tn Vcl - Mnd Bs Vcl  
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
Shelton Feazell  
A-13
John The Revelator
02:40
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Blind Willie Johnson
  Ld Vcl                
  Ralph Stanley
               
A-14
What Kind Of Man
02:52
c2010
A Mother's Prayer

Larry Sparks / R. Stanley
  Ld Vcl Gtr Bt Vcl - Fid Ld Gtr Bjo Bs Tn Vcl - Mnd Bs Vcl  
  Ralph Stanley
Ralph II Stanley
Dewey Brown
James Alan Shelton
Steve Sparkman
Jimmy Cameron
John Rigsby
Shelton Feazell  

NB: Liner notes don't specify instruments for individual tracks.

Other artwork / related images:
Rear Cover Booklet Picture Booklet Picture

[1] Carter's introduction to the song on 'Folk Festival - University Of Chicago 1961 & 1965' (Stanleytone ST-CD-5003) 2001.

For the Official Ralph Stanley II and the Clinch Mountain Boys site, visit:

Ralph II ralph2.com

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