Search - Ralph Stanley :: Poor Rambler

Great Historic Bluegrass!

William D. Ferrell | Poca, WV United States | 03/21/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I was a child, my grandmother owned an old KING album by Ralph Stanley called "Brand New Country Songs". That recording was made in 1967 and has been out of print for far too many years, but finaly, here it is in the first twelve tracks of this wonderful box set.

At the time, I didn't know much about Bluegrass Music itself, other than the fact that I loved this album.

The best and most memorable of the songs on that album were "Hemlock and Primroses", "Wonderful World Outside", and "Love Please Stay". These are beautiful lonesome mountain love songs. However, there are humerous moments too (Poor Rambler), and great instrumentals ("Roe Hoe" and "Lost Train").

What I didn't know at the time was the fact that the "Brand New Country Songs" album was the first Ralph recorded after the passing of his brother Carter (together Ralph and Carter were the legendary Stanley Brothers), and Ralph hired a young 19 year old fellow named Larry Sparks who sounded much like the late Carter Stanley.

Larry went on to have a great career in bluegrass music.

Anyway, also featured here are two other great albums by Ralph ("Over The Sunset Hill" and "Hills Of Home"). Both of these albums featured the haunting lead vocals and guitar of Larry Sparks, who sounded much more mature at the time than his 19 years.

In addition to these classic albums, you get the entire session recordings made for Ralph's colaboration with Jimmy Martin (recorded in 1980). - Let's try not to upset some of the Bluegrass musicians out there but there are drums in the Martin/Stanley portion of this set. So much for the argument that drums and traditional Bluegrass don't go together.

At any rate, this set is well worth the money, and it deserves 5 stars... the only reason I gave it four instead of five is the quality of the master tape was poor and (especially if you listen to it on a headset) you hear lots of tape flutter and noise, but it's well worth sitting through that for these long lost treasures.

It's worth the money and more. If you like good traditional Bluegrass, buy this today and consider the Stanley Brothers box sets on the KING label.







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