The Stanley Brothers - Old Time Songs

(Stanleytone STCD-5001) 2001

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This CD contains a set that was recorded by Larry Ehrlich at the WCYB radio studio on 24th March 1956. A fan of the Stanley Brothers, from Chicago, he had travelled to Bristol to see the band.

Larry:- "This recording was made... after a long day of radio shows, barn dances, hog auctions and the like, Carter, Ralph, Curley Lambert, Ralph Mayo and I went to WCYB studios around midnight where I set up a mike, asked the Stanley's to sing some of the old traditional songs and turned on the tape recorder."

The recording features many 'oldies' that the Stanley's hadn't at that time recorded, and is quite a relaxed, informal session. Ralph picks mandolin on East Virginia Blues and apparently Curley Lambert's absence on the latter tracks is explained by him having fallen asleep underneath the studio's piano!

Larry didn't have to pay anything to make the recording^[1] and much later Ralph released it on CD and sold through his fan-club and at gigs. It was also re-released in 2004 as An Evening Long Ago on Columbia/DMZ, with a slightly longer running time (47:30 mins). The timing difference between the two seems to be fractionally different playback speed of the original tape (about 2%). I can't discern any difference otherwise.

I presume that this is the same Larry Ehrlich, who is co-credited as producer on Ralph's 2002 Ralph Stanley and 2006 A Distant Land To Roam Columbia/DMZ albums.

The Stanleytone CD comes with extensive liner notes by Gary B. Reid.

• Carter Stanley: guitar, vocal
• Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocal
• Curley Lambert: mandolin
• Ralph Mayo: fiddle

For more detailed breakdown and background to the session, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 58-59 and 75-76.

Other artwork / related images:

[1] email from Larry Ehrlich quoted in David W. Johnson's book 'Lonesome Melodies - The Lives And Music Of The Stanley Brothers' (p.128)