Clinch Mountain Echo

CMB Birthdays this month:

04 Feb 1972 - Steve Sparkman. Harlan, Kentucky.

04 Feb 1906 - Art Wooten. Born 'Arthur James Wooten' in Alleghany, North Carolina.

11 Feb 1960 - Junior Blankenship. Born at the old Grundy Hospital, Grundy, Va.

25 Feb 1927 - Ralph Stanley. Born 'Ralph Edmund Stanley' in Big Spraddle Creek, near Stratton, McClure, Virginia.

29 Feb 1932 - Jim Williams. Born 'James Lee Williams' in Wythe County, Virginia.


In Memoriam:

05 Feb 1980 - Chubby Anthony. Gainesville, Alachua, Florida.

08 Feb 2003 - Ralph 'Joe' Meadows. Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland.

08 Feb 1987 - Harold 'Red' Stanley. Fentress, Tennessee.


For the Official Ralph Stanley II and the Clinch Mountain Boys site, visit:

Ralph II ralph2.com

Spotlight on:-

Loving You Too Well / Gonna Paint The Town
(King Bluegrass 730846)


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Clinch Mountain Echo

Ralph Stanley - Live at Watermelon Park

Berryville, Virginia 1969

(Stanleytone records STR-1105) 2005


Live at Watermelon Park

Average Album Rating: 4
(Total votes 10)

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This CD was released on Ralph's Stanleytone label and sold at gigs and via the Dr Ralph Stanley Fan Club.

The recording is from the Carlton Haney' Berryville festival, 4th - 6th July 1969. Tracks 1-7 are from the afternoon performance on Friday the 4th, the remainder could be from either the evening performance on the 4th or the following day.

Ken Landreth's recordings from this festival [1] include tracks 1-7, but also include the first part of this Friday afternoon set, which opens with Pig In A Pen, Curly Ray's eponymous fiddle tune Curly Ray and Don't Step Over An Old Love. The first three numbers are performed without any bass - Ed Ferris being called upon to help out, which he did for the rest of the weekend.

On the Ken Landreth tape, the sales pitch at the end of the first set is partly 'cut' which would indicate that it's not the source for this CD. Also, the second set (tracks 8-17) are not featured on Ken's tapes.

The short version of Roanoke at the end of the first set, suggests that the band may have been using it as an opening/closing theme tune.

The other material recorded by Ken includes 5 tracks from the Saturday afternoon performance on the 5th: Black Mountain Blues / I Only Exist / Little Maggie / Man of Constant Sorrow & a snippet of Daybreak In Dixie. Here Ralph says that they'd recently returned from a west coast / Oregon tour & thanks Steve Waller (Sawtooth Mountain Boys)... also the band hadn't yet recorded I Only Exist.

For the Sunday morning set, Lonnie Bowlin who filled in on guitar, is absent & the band perform: What Kind of Man Jesus Is / Going Up Home to Live in Green Pastures / Shouting on the Hills of Glory / Little Bessie and Somebody Touched Me.

The afternoon / evening is taken up by Carlton Haney's 'Bluegrass Story' and pt. 3 includes performances of I'm On My Way Back to the Old Home and Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake with Bill Monroe, Ralph, Curly Ray Cline, Larry Sparks and Bill Yates on bass. Fred Bartenstein then plays True Life Blues (See picture) and Jimmy Martin is brought on for White Dove and Lonesome River, before Bill and Ralph lead on Clinch Mountain Backstep.

Some of the other performers at the festival included: Bill Monroe; Jimmy Martin; Country Gentlemen; Don Reno & Bill Harrell; Mac Wiseman; Del McCoury; Osborne Brothers; Maybelle Carter; Jimmy Arnold & Wesley Golding; Curtis Blackwell, Randall Collins & the Dixie Bluegrass Boys; Jim Eanes & the Shenandoah Valley Cutups; Bill Emerson, Cliff Waldron & the Lee Highway Boys; and The Goins Brothers. (Melvin Goins had left Ralph on 18th May 1969 [2]).

The Cover photo for the CD by Phil Zimmerman was taken at the Country Gentlemen's 1972 Bluegrass Festival at Indian Ranch, Webster MA.

Roughly one week after this festival, the band recorded the Hills Of Home album.

  • Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocals
  • Lonnie Bowlin: guitar
  • Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
  • Ed Ferris: bass
  • Larry Sparks: lead guitar, vocals

 

Track:
Title:
Time:
Date:
Original Release:
A-1
Poor Rambler
02:55
04 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

R. Stanley / Curly Ray Cline
  Ld Vcl - Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-2
Man Of Constant Sorrow
03:00
04 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

R.D. Burnett
  Ld Vcl - Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-3
Long Journey Home
02:54
04 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

P.D.
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-4
Little Maggie
02:18
04 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

P.D.
  Ld Vcl - Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-5
Going Up Home To Live In Green Pastures
03:40
04 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

Avril Gearheart / R. Stanley
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-6
Black Mountain Blues
03:21
04 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

Leslie Keith
  Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-7
Roanoke
03:21
04 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

Bill Monroe (aka Joe Ahr)
  Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-8
Riding That Midnight Train
02:25
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

R. Stanley
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-9
Lost Train Blues
02:34
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

Curly Ray Cline
  Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-10
Standing Room Only
03:43
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

Ray Pennington
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-11
Pretty Polly
03:25
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

P.D.
  Ld Vcl - Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-12
Think Of What You've Done
02:28
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

C. Stanley
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-13
Hills Of Roane County
04:25
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

William Maberry
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-14
Stone Walls And Steel Bars
02:38
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

Ray Pennington / Roy E. Marcum
  Tn Vcl - Ld Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-15
Shouting On The Hills
02:30
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

C. Stanley
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-16
Orange Blossom Special
02:57
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

Ervin T. Rouse
  Bjo Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
A-17
Little Bessie
03:43
04/05 Jul 1969
Berryville, Va

P.D.
  Tn Vcl - Bjo Ld Vcl - Ld Gtr Fid Gtr Bs    
  Ralph Stanley
Larry sparks
Curly Ray Cline
Lonnie Bowlin
Ed Ferris
 
 
Other artwork / related images:
Rear Cover CD Tray Bill Monroe - Ralph Stanley

[1] http://frobbi.org/audio/landreth/Berryville1969/index.html.
[2] Melvin left 18th May 1969 - liner notes to The Goins Brothers - Bluegrass Hits Old & New (REM LP-1041) 1969

For the Official Ralph Stanley II and the Clinch Mountain Boys site, visit:

Ralph II ralph2.com

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