V/A - Plum Pitiful, Vol. 2

(Wango CD-116) 2000

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This 60:53 min compilation of Ray Davis' basement recordings includes four Stanley Brothers tracks and two by Ralph Stanley. Of the Stanley Brothers cuts, Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone, Mother's Not Dead and Man Of Constant Sorrow were later reissued on the Time-Life CD Plum Pitiful. That leaves Little Willie from the Dec. 1963 radio sessions, which appears to be unique to this release.

Of Ralph's tracks, Life Of Sorrow is the same as on the Reunion - Featuring George Shuffler & James King CD, which was recorded 14-15th Mar. 1987. The other track is a 32 second acapella rendition of The Vacant Chair from 1996. This seems to be only the first half of a recording Ralph made, which was included in full on the Wango Civil War Memories CD in 2005, and which featured a monologue by Ralph Davis in the middle. Ralph also later recorded it again as a much longer version backed by the CMB's for the V/A - Divided & United in 2013.

A number of the other artists tracks are also duplicated on other Wango compilations...

The Time-Life CD Plum Pitiful from 2004 is predominantly a combination of tracks from this CD and Vol. 1, with eight tracks duplicated from Vol. 2:- Basement Band - Six More Miles; Charlie Moore - Rebel Soldier & Shackles And Chains; Don Reno & Red Smiley - Speak To Me Little Darlin'; Mac Wiseman - A Hero's Death; Stanley Brothers - Mother's Not Dead (She's Only Sleeping), Man Of Constant Sorrow and Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone.

Thanks to Chris Wing for letting me hear this one!

For a detailed breakdown and background to the Stanley's Wango sessions, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 173-174, 180-182, 204-209 and 211-212.

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