V/A - Banjo In The Hills

16 Great Mountain Songs By All Star Artists

(Starday SLP-104) Aug 1959

---

This Various Artists compilation includes three tracks by the Stanleys from the Mountain Song Favorites album:- Gonna Paint The Town, That Happy Night and the instrumental Banjo In The Hills... which is another alias for the Mercury version of Daybreak In Dixie. The latter track also appeared on Mountain Song Favorites but credited as Ralph's Banjo Special, and as Hard Times came out in Nov 1963 and Mountain Song Favorites in Nov 1959, this compilation was probably Daybreak In Dixie's first appearance on vinyl.

'Billboard' magazine reviewed the album in their 3rd August 1959 edition giving the release three stars and describing it thus:- "Surely a great buy in its category is this package of country music. Fifteen performances in all, by some of the great artists in the field, such as the Stanley Brothers and Clinch Mountain Boys, Bill Clifton, Jim Eanes and others with the true hill sound. This is picking and singing in the traditional style. C&W jockeys will find the album a treasure trove."^[1]

Aside from the Stanley's tracks, Rusty York & Willard Hale's Don't Do It is an excellent bluegrass number (hear it on youtube).

Bill Clifton's Flowers From The Hillside from an RCA session in Nashville, Nov. 1956, is also of interest as it features Ralph Stanley (banjo) and CMB's Curley Lambert (tenor vocal/mandolin) & George Shuffler (bs). (Curley Lambert also plays on Little White Washed Chimney).

Don Pierce licensed the compilation to the UK Melodisc label who issued it with a different cover (Melodisc MLP 12-115) and it was later reissued in the US in 1976 (Starday SLP 104) with a third cover and on (Nashville NLP-2011) 197?.

The Stanley's tracks can all be found on The Early Starday/King Years, 1958-1961).

For detailed information on the songs/sessions check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 66-68, 82-83, 86-88, and 137.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2goEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=billboard+slp+104+starday+banjo+in+the+hills&source=bl&ots=LtwitUJ6Z5&sig=GNDjg3v2gcIznLC_4i8a8o1JSxM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4qJ-clqDWAhUqJMAKHfi1AeYQ6AEIMTAB#v=onepage&q=billboard%20slp%20104%20starday%20banjo%20in%20the%20hills&f=false