The three years covered by this collection were among the most productive and intensely focused of Ralph Stanleys career. In 1971 alone, his band produced four records for Rebel, and in May of that year, Stanley initiated an annual festival at his home in McClure, Virginia. With exception of fiddler Curley Ray Cline, his lineup was new, with Jack Cooke on bass and Roy Lee Centers on guitar. Stanley happened upon Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs (they make their recording debut here) when the two teenagers were playing old Stanley Brothers tunes at a festival. In the words of Neil Rosen_berg, they sounded more like the Stanleys than the Stanleys themselves. Whitleys low and lonesome vocals and Skaggs second fiddle and mandolin were fresh and assured. It was a thrilling ensemble; in its own way, historic.
At the time, bands such as New Grass Revival and the Seldom Scene were applying rock and jazz spurs to bluegrass. Stanley instead plumbed older music and favored not just the deepest sacred material, but the old-time sounds of porches and parlors. As a boy, he attended the McClure Primitive Baptist Church, where instruments were prohibited and hymns were sung a cappella. The Clinch Mountain Boys assays into four-part a cappella arrangements would have lasting repercussions on bluegrass.
The first CD covers Cry From The Cross, arguably the finest bluegrass gospel album ever, and includes six more songs from its attendant sessions. It contains the earliest and most influential examples of the old modal Baptist singing style on a bluegrass recording. Stanley was less re-creating that unaccompanied, chant-like sound than updating it for a contemporary audience; the tenor and bass parts have a sculpted, smooth quality, and the overall effect is of a mild yet stunning harmonic beauty.
The second disc draws from a Tokyo session and features loose, freewheeling traditionals plus an absolute gem, the Stanley original Little Glass of Wine. It contrasts with the first CD in offering less sacred material and highlighting duets with Roy Lee Centers, notably on That Lonesome Old Song. Divided between three sessions in 1971 and one in 1973, the third disc is remarkably diverse and returns to the a cappella quartet with the Roscoe Reed hymn When I Get Home and Village Church Yard, performed with long, sweet languor. Stanleys banjo playing also casts a backward glance. When the brother team came to Columbia in 1948, Ralph had begun playing the fleet three-finger style of Earl Scruggs; after Carters death, he frequently returned to the older clawhammer style its well represented on disc four of this box and thus further drawing out the mountain in the music.
Of Ralph Stanleys voice, Gillian Welch once said, Every time he opens his mouth you want to cry. Theres that catch at just the right word, the energetic phrasing, the frayed edges, an essence of character rather than soaring skill. Its the key to the versions of Man of Constant Sorrow, Gold Watch and Chain, and Hank Williams Six More Miles all are of a power that feels definitive. Nearly every take during this three-year streak stands tall beside the classic Stanley Brothers recordings; the quality is that high. And for a lover of bluegrass and mountain music, this exquisite and meticulously packaged set is every bit as cardinal.