Ralph Stanley - Snow Covered Mound

(Stanley Tone RSR 1154) 1980

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This Gospel album was recorded at Lowell Varney's Riverside Recording Studios in Crum, Va on the 27th Feb 1980. Sadly, it hasn't been issued on CD...

Wreck On The Highway (aka I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray) was written by Dorsey Dixon in 1937 after a serious road accident in Rockingham, Nc.^[1] I had thought that The Stanley Brothers had recorded it, but apparently not... The Louvin Brothers, Roy Acuff, Carl Story, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper did though.

Snow Covered Mound, Go Down Moses and Tarry With Me Oh My Saviour are performed a cappella, with the latter track 'lined' by Ralph. Snow Covered Mound had previously been recorded by Ralph, with fiddle/bass accompaniment and at a much faster tempo on his King Over The Sunset Hill LP.

Tarry With Me Oh My Saviour has a lovely rich vocal blend, including David and Chester Marshall of The Marshall Family. It sounds archaic.

Guide Me Through Great Jehova is also interesting as it's set to the melody/chord structure of Man Of Constant Sorrow (or is it the other way 'round?).

A version of Harbor Of Love, the old Carter Stanley chestnut, closes the album.

Originally issued on Ralph's "Stanley Tone" label, the album was later reissued in a new cover by Rebel (Rebel REB 1613) 1984.

• Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocals
• Junior Blankenship: lead guitar
• Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
• Jack Cooke: bass
• Chester 'Pop' Marshall: harmonica, vocals
• David Marshall: vocal (*)
• Charlie Sizemore: guitar, vocals

NB: (*) vocal on the a cappella Tarry With Me Oh My Saviour.

NB: Liner notes don't specify instruments/vocal parts for individual tracks, so the above breakdown may not be correct.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] See http://www.folkarchive.de/wreck.html