CMH RECORDS RE-RELEASES CARL STORY’S “MOUNTAIN MUSIC” DIGITALLY FOR THE FIRST TIME

Born in North Carolina, 1916, vocalist, guitarist, fiddler, banjoist and songwriter Carl Story is a bluegrass legend. From a young age, Story performed and recorded regularly, playing with the legendary Bill Monroe and founding his own band The Rambling Mountaineers at only eighteen. Dubbed “The Father of Bluegrass Gospel” for his unique delivery of sacred songs in the traditional bluegrass style, Story left a lasting mark on bluegrass music that is remembered to this day.

In 1976, Story released two albums with CMH Records. One was “The Bluegrass Gospel Collection”, which surveyed the bluegrass gospel sound and repertoire that Story pioneered. “Mountain Music” was his second, an album that celebrated and focused on the sounds of the string bands of the 20s and 30s that came out of the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. Born to musician parents in those very hills, Story grew up hearing the music on this record firsthand.

CARL STORY
Country / Bluegrass

The album begins with “I Love Mountain Music,” a bluegrass standard which first achieved popularity about 40 years before this album’s initial release that serves as the album’s statement of purpose. This is followed by “I Heard My Mother Weeping,” a classic in the repertoire, penned by Story himself and made famous by Molly O’Day. A heartbreaking number, the song takes its inspiration from a real-life mother’s courtroom plea for the judge to shorten her son’s life sentence. From there, “Mountain Music” presents a survey of music both spiritual and secular, including Hank Williams’ sacred number “I Saw the Light,” the traditional “Down in Union County” and Bill Monroe’s “True Life Blues,” a then-unlikely song expressing sympathies for the pains of the housewife.