Gloryland: The DVD Collection

(Stanley Family SFR-007) 2023

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This DVD is only available direct from Ralph II at his shows with the Clinch Mountain Boys. It features about 28 mins of colour footage from the Aug/Sept 1974 '3rd Annual Old Time Bluegrass Festival' in Glory Land Park, Glasgow, Delaware, including clips of Ralph playing on stage, the Sunday Morning Gospel session led by Bill Monroe, backstage footage of the CMB's warming up, and a snippet of Ralph singing a capella with the Marshall Family on Turn Back, Turn Back. There's also about 31 mins of bonus B&W video from the second 'Stanley Tradition In American Music' event, which took place in Dec 1976, at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.

The colour footage was taken from a 90 min film "Bluegrass: People and Pickin'" by Ron Kanter of New Jersey Public Broadcasting. In all 13 hours of footage was shot over the three day festival, and then whittled down to 90mins for broadcast on 16 Mar 1975 on New Jersey Public Broadcasting.^[1] Sadly, only 30mins could be used on this DVD release due to copyright / licensing problems. The original film also included performances by Bill Monroe, Larry Sparks and others, as well as audience jam sessions.

The DVD starts with some footage of the CMB's warming up in the dressing room behind the stage with a 1:58 min version of Pretty Little Indian; the band then hit the stage with a 2:19 min rendition of Orange Blossom Special; band introductions follow with Ralph commenting that they call Rickey Lee, "Hook and Beans" (a nickname mostly associated with Buddy Moore, who played in the CMB's in 1982/3); then there's a short 15 second snippet of the intro to Lee Highway Blues before the film cuts to Ralph and members of the Marshall Family singing Turn Back, Turn Back a capella in the festival grounds at night. Ralph went on to record this song six months later for his Let Me Rest On A Peaceful Mountain LP. The festival version lasts about 34 seconds and unlike the LP recording, is lined out by one of the Marshall Family.

The film then has the first of two interview segments, which look like they were filmed on the Sunday. This one includes Chester 'Pop' Marshall, and consists of talk about Gospel songs and Coon hunting.

Next is more backstage footage with a 38 sec clip of Ralph picking either Row Hoe or Clinch Mountain Backstep with Keith Whitley; and an on-stage medley of If I Lose / The Kitten And The Cat with humorous interplay between the band - Curly hogging the mic & Ralph 'shooing' him away with his banjo;

The second interview segment follows, with Ralph and Curly Ray talking about Curly's stage persona, the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, working for Ralph & respect for the public.

The final part of Ralph's on-stage set included a 2:17 min version of Will You Miss Me, which has an edit towards the end; and a 1:45 min encore of Ralph's banjo instrumental, Hard Times.

The colour footage concludes with a couple of Gospel tracks from the Sunday morning session led by Bill Monroe. Musicians on stage include Ralph Stanley, Curly Ray Cline, Bill Monroe & various Blue Grass Boys, The McLain Family, Sullivan Family, Marshall Family, Melvin Goins, and some others I don't recognise. The music consists of a 1:28 min version of Just A Little Talk With Jesus and a 3:08 min medley of Swing Low Sweet Chariot / I'll Fly Away.

Considering the film is about 50 years old, the quality is pretty decent. The colours are still vibrant & haven't faded, and the sound quality is generally good, with just the occasional pitch wobble. The film does however have some dust spots & tramlines, so hasn't been digitally cleaned.

Aside from the short clip of the Roy Lee Centers era from John Cohen's 'Musical Holdouts' film^[2], this is the earliest colour concert footage of Ralph, and it certainly captures the band in peak form.

The B&W bonus video footage however is not great quality when compared to the larger commercial TV of the era, but is still better than much of the domestically available video which was available a decade or so later. Picture quality and resolution is not great but it is rare. Much of the material consists of Ralph talking about the Stanley Brothers era, with musical snippets of Ralph on banjo accompanied by Keith Whitley on Shout Little Lulie (51 sec), Cripple Creek (42 sec), Going Downtown (23 sec). There's also a version of East Virginia Blues (2:17 min) with Ralph picking the Mandolin, although the camera placement is not optimal; and the full band play the Farm And Fun Time Theme (54 sec). Curly Ray Cline also plays 49 sec of Boil Them Cabbage Down with Troy 'Renfro' Profitt on guitar.

The interview sections will be of more interest to the hard-core fan, but don't particularly stand up to repeated viewing. It is a shame that more music couldn't have been included, especially as the multi-camera video footage exists for the end of week concert that was held at LMU on 10 Dec 1976, as well as the rest of the 3-day seminar.

Gary Reid deserves a medal for putting this DVD togther. Ralph Stanley fans will definitely want to pick this one up if they can!

Other artwork / related images:

[1] "Bluegrass: People & Pickin' - A Film" by Mike Plonsker, 'Bluegrass Unlimited' March 1975.
[2] https://www.folkstreams.net/films/musical-holdouts The section with Ralph starts at about 15:45.