Valley View Park, 1957

this collection combines two sets of live recordings that were made by the Stanley Brothers in 1957. The recordings were made by folklorist Mike Seeger who used a portable reel-to-reel recorder to capture the concerts on tape. Tracks 1 through 14 in this collection were recorded on May 12, 1957, at Valley View Park in Hellam, Pennsylvania. The group that day consisted of Carter and Ralph Stanley, Curley Lambert on mandolin, Chubby Anthony on fiddle, and Lindy Clear on bass. By 1957, a number of people, such as Mike Seeger, who made live recordings of Stanley Brothers performances had multiple live renditions of the duo’s more popular record and stage numbers. Consequently, the recordists were being more selective in what they decided to hit the record button for. As such, what we have here is a collection of songs and tunes that are among the lesser-known portions of their repertoire. There’s some mighty fine duets by Carter and Ralph on “You’d Better Get Right,” “Feast Here Tonight” – a la their idols the Monroe Brothers – and “Thinking of the Old Days,” a song that Carter wrote but which the Brothers never recorded. There’s sprightly banjo picking by Ralph on a truncated version of his classic “Hard Times” as well as the old-timer “Cumberland Gap.” Carter solo’s with some rare (for him) guitar picking on “Wildwood Flower” while Ralph steps front and center with his perennial favorite “Little Birdie.” The boys are joined by Curley Lambert for a nice trio arrangement of a then recent country hit by The Browns called “Here Today and Gone Tomorrow.” The Clinch Mountain Boys get to shine as well. Chubby Anthony offers some blistering work on a trio of fiddle tunes: “Carroll County Blues,” “Katy Hill,” and “Back Up and Push.” Curley Lambert renders some fine solos on several country music evergreens; “I Know What it Means to Be Lonesome” has associations with the Carter Family and later with Clyde Moody while “I’ll Be True While You’re Gone” is best known as a Gene Autry favorite. Later that summer the Stanley Brothers performed in the Baltimore area, most likely at the behest of Baltimore radio personality Ray Davis. Frequently Davis would hire bands for a week at a time and place them in various venues within listening range of his WBMD radio program; he used that to heavily promote the appearances. One spot that Ray used was a place called Unity Hall in the Dundalk section of Baltimore. It was here that tracks 15 through 20 were recorded on July 6, 1957. The personnel for the group changed slightly by the time of this recording. Curley Lambert was replaced by hotshot newcomer Bill Napier and Lindy Clear’s spot on bass was taken over by Jack Cooke. There is a guest fiddler, Jimmy Grier, on at least one track (“I Hope You Have Learned”). For whatever reason, only a brief portion of the Stanley Brothers show at Unity Hall made its way on to tape. Leading off is a peppy rendering of Carter and Ralph’s theme song, “Dickenson County Breakdown.” After a brief introduction by Carter, Bill Napier sings lead on a song made popular by country crooner Webb Pierce called “Drink Up and Go Home;” Jack Cooke supplies some tenor harmonies. Napier and Ralph then tear through a charged version of Bill Monroe’s “Rawhide.” Two more songs complete the set. One is a duet by Carter and Ralph on a recent Monroe release called “I Hope You Have Learned.” Featured last is an instrumental called “Wild Horse.” Carter indicated that it was a relatively recent composition and that they were previewing it for the (evidently more than one) persons who were set up with their tape recorders. The Stanleys later recorded the song as “Holiday Pickin’.” Other collections of Stanley Brothers recordings live recordings have tended to concentrate on performances that were made in 1955 and 1956 and later in 1958. This is the first collection devoted specifically to their 1957 recordings. As the music heard here bears out, the group was in their prime and making some of the best music of their career.