The Stanley Brothers - On Stage

(Seven Seas SR(M) 287-288) 1969

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This is a Japanese double LP which was issued, I believe, shortly before the Rebel albums Legendary Stanley Brothers Recorded Live, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

I had thought that it featured the same material... but it looks like there are seven tracks which aren't on the Rebel releases:- Little Glass Of Wine, Don't Go Out Tonight, Little Birdie, Are You Tired Of Me My Darling, How Mountain Girls Can Love and Bound To Ride; plus two cuts on the Rebel albums which aren't on this release (Working On A Building on Vol. 1 and Train 45 on Vol. 2)....

Of the additional material, some has also been released on the Live At New River Ranch CD, Live At Antioch College 1960 LP and Stanley Series, Vol. 3 No. 4, but I've been unable to find the same versions elsewhere of Are You Tired Of Me, Darling, How Mountain Girls Can Love and Bound To Ride.

Carter announces Are You Tired Of Me, Darling, saying "...and now we'd like to do another song here that goes back a long ways too. It was recorded 30 years ago I reckon, maybe more...".

And on How Mountain Girls Can Love Carter introduces the song as "Well somebody said tell us about those gals down in Dickenson County... we're gonna leave you with that tonight, one called 'How Mountain Girls Can Love', and we ought to know...".

Thanks to Gary B. Reid, we now know that these two cuts are respectively from the 31 Aug 1962 Ash Grove, Hollywood and the 18 Jun 1961, Watermelon Park, Warrenton tapes.

It also transpires that the version of Bound To Ride is different to the one featured on the Rebel Vol. 2 LP, and is in fact from 4th March 1962 at Glen Echo Park in Charlottesville, VA. Thanks to Todd Gracyk & Gary Reid for that info!

Another oddity which I originally thought was from a different show is Nobody's Business which has a busy mandolin intro... Again Gary B. Reid has helpfully identified this as the same version as on the Stanley Series, Vol. 3 No. 4, except that Dick Freeland has replaced Ralph's slightly flubbed banjo introduction with a copy of Bill Napier's mandolin break from later in the song...

The album comes in a gatefold sleeve, with a two-page insert glued to the centre of the gatefold, which contains lyrics in English. The artwork also mentions that it was "Recorded by Rebel, USA" and has a copyright date of 1969. Sound quality is varible, perhaps slightly worse than the Rebel albums, which overlap considerably. The live pictures are by Walt Saunders from the American Legion Park, Culpepper, Va. 26th June 1966.^[2]

For more information on these live recordings, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 52-55, 59-60, 76-78, 89-90, 107-108, 127, 129-130, 135, 137-139, 146-149, 157, 160 and 163-164.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] Gary B. Reid's book "The Music Of The Stanley Brothers" (p.199)