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RALPH STANLEY - MOUNTAIN PREACHER'S CHILD (REB-7517, 2007)

Musicians

Ralph Stanley: Banjo, Vocals
Charlie Sizemore: Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
Junior Blankenship: Lead Guitar Mandolin on track 3
Curly Ray Cline: Fiddle
Jack Cooke: Bass
Chester "Pop" Marshall: Harmonica on track 8, Bass Vocal on track 10
Keith Whitley: Rhythm Guitar & Lead Guitar on track 14
Ricky Lee: Lead Guitar on track 14

Production Credits

Produced by: David Freeman
Mastered by: David Glasser at AirShow Mastering, Boulder, Co
Cover Photo: Jim McGuire
Production Coordinator: Mark Freeman

Mountain Preacher’s Child features tracks from Ralph Stanley’s magnificent but often-overlooked Gospel recordings of the early 1980s. The material included here—all of it available on CD for the first time—comes from three albums: I’ll Wear A White Robe (1979), Snow Covered Mound (1982) and I Can Tell You The Time (1985) (the lone exception, “Looking for the Stone,” appeared on the 1975 release Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain featuring Keith Whitley).

Stanley’s group of Clinch Mountain Boys during this period of the late 70s and early 80s was truly one of his best lineups. The band featured on this collection—Charlie Sizemore (rhythm guitar, lead and harmony vocals), Junior Blankenship (lead guitar), Curly Ray Cline (fiddle), Jack Cooke (bass and harmony vocals) and Ralph Stanley (banjo, lead and harmony vocals)—remained together for over nine years, the longest Stanley ever went without a personnel change. No doubt, this longevity and stability contributed to the group’s hard-driving, cohesive sound, and, with Stanley in his prime, it resulted in some of the best music of his career.

Charlie Sizemore had big shoes to fill as lead singer of the Clinch Mountain Boys when he joined in 1977. Following the likes of Larry Sparks, Roy Lee Centers and Keith Whitley, Sizemore was initially uncertain whether he was the right man for the job; however, with Ralph’s patience and encouragement, he developed into a fine and confident lead vocalist. Nowhere is that more evident than the duets performed by Stanley and Sizemore on this album: “Troublesome Waters,” “Walking Up This Hill on Decoration Day,” “The Keys to the Kingdom” and Don Reno’s “Oak Grove Church” clearly show Sizemore’s growth and maturation as a singer.

The remaining songs on this recording represent the Stanley sound at its finest. Ralph is credited with introducing a cappella gospel singing to bluegrass and there are four such selections here: the title cut, “I’ll Wear a White Robe,” “Snow Covered Mound” and “Go Down Moses.” Trios are certainly not the most common entries in the Stanley catalog, but Mountain Preacher’s Child contains several fine examples of the form, with Jack Cooke coming in on the baritone harmony part. These trios, which showcase some of Sizemore’s best singing of the era, include “The Man in the Middle,” “Just Over the Stars,” “I’m In A New World,” “The God That Never Fails” and the sublime “The Little Old Church by the Road.”