The Stanley Brothers - Mountain Song Favorites

Featuring 5 String Banjo

(Starday SLP-106) Nov 1959

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Sometime around 1957, things were in flux at Mercury. A deal between the label and Starday, which saw releases credited as Mercury-Starday and allowed for cross-licensing between them soon fell apart. The Stanley Brothers, along with most of Mercury's country roster were dropped by the label and subsequently picked up by Don Pierce at Starday.^[1]

The Stanley Brothers first Starday session in the summer of 1958, resulted in two singles. The first, Gonna Paint The Town / That Happy Night (Starday 406) was released in Sept/Oct. 1958 and the second was a Christmas single with Christmas Is Near / Holiday Pickin' (Starday 413) released in Nov. 1958. Except for Christmas Is Near all three cuts were included on the LP.

In the summer of 1959, The Stanleys recorded two further sessions at their home base at WNER-Live Oak, Florida to complete the album. Another single was released in advance of the album's release:- Beneath The Maple / Trust Each Other (Starday 438) Jun 1959, and Starday also released a Picture Sleeve EP with Beneath The Maple / Choo Choo Comin' // Carolina Mountain Home / Trust Each Other (Starday SEP-107) in 1959. A further single, Another Night / Highway Of Regret (Starday 466) was released around the time of the LP in Nov. 1959; and another a few months later: Ridn' That Midnight Train / A Little At A Time (Starday 494) May 1960.

Curiously, Don Pierce included the Mercury recording of Daybreak In Dixie on the album, but re-named it Ralph's Banjo Special... Starday had first released Daybreak... in Aug 1959 on the Various Artists - Banjo In The Hills LP under the alias Banjo In The Hills, so it looks like this was the second time it had been released. The Mercury Hard Times LP didn't appear until much later - Nov. 1963.

'Mountain Song Favorites' is another of the Stanley's classic albums, with great performances and songs which have largely become bluegrass standards and signature 'Stanley' style songs.

The album was also issued in the UK (Melodisc MLP 12-118) 1961^[2] and Canada (Sparton SLP-106) 196?. It was later reissued (Nashville NLP 2014) Aug. 1964. Nowadays, with the exception of Daybreak In Dixie it is probably best found on The Early Starday/King Years, 1958-1961 4xCD box set. The Mercury version of Daybreak In Dixie can be found on The Complete Mercury Recordings.

Note that the track list on the original rear cover has Trust Each Other and Gonna Paint The Town listed in the wrong order!

For detailed information on these songs / sessions, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 86-88, 96-98, 137 and 141.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] In 1956 Bill Clifton finished his military service. Carter Stanley told him to speak to Dee Kilpatrick at Mercury, who had signed The Stanley Brothers and oversaw their early Mercury sessions. Kilpatrick however was planning to leave the label and take up a job managing the Grand Ole Opry. He told Bill that A&R for Mercury would be taken over by Don Pierce who also ran Starday. Bill:- "Don Pierce apparently had said to Mercury that he would represent Mercury in the studios in Nashville and feed the masters back into the Mercury label. Initially it said Mercury-Starday on the labels, on 78s and 45s, and then the next one came out, also on a 78, but it read only Mercury. Why, I don't know, probably an oversight on Mercury's part, because Don had an agreement with them that it should be Mercury-Starday. After that, they split up, primarily because Mercury decided to keep George Jones who sold more records than all the other artists put together and drop everybody else. They (Starday) were then virtually the only label for bluegrass and old timey music, after all the other labels had dropped just about everybody, except Decca still had Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin and Columbia still had Flatt and Scruggs, while the Osborne Brothers had just signed with MGM. So they droped all of us like hot potatoes. Carl Story, the Stanley Brothers, Don Pierce said, 'Well okay, if Mercury drops you, I'll take you'. So he decided to have all of us on his Starday label. As a result he became 'the' bluegrass label as he had everybody. There was no place else for us to go." Rienk Janssen liner notes to Bill Clifton - 'Around The World To Poor Valley' 8xCD box set (Bear Family BCD-16425) 2001 (p.30).
[2] A track listing of the UK Melodisc release was included in the Dec. 1961 issue of 'Country-Western Express'. Thanks to Gary Reid for the info.