A Distant Land to Roam: Songs of the Carter Family finds Ralph Stanley paying tribute to the musical family whose recordings first brought Appalachian mountain music to a national audience beginning in 1927. The Carter Family's repertoire — hymns, ballads, parlor songs, and folk tunes — was the bedrock on which virtually all subsequent mountain music styles, including bluegrass, were built. Stanley, whose own career traced directly from the region and tradition the Carters represented, was an ideal interpreter of their material. His unaccompanied or sparsely accompanied singing in the old modal style connects the Carter repertoire to its deepest roots.
Tracklist
- 1 God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign Source Recording 3:08
- 2 Little Moses 3:54
- 3 Worried Man Blues Source Recording 4:02
- 4 Longing For Home 3:28
- 5 Motherless Children 3:30
- 6 The Storms are on the Ocean alt version 2:51
- 7 Keep on the Firing Line Source Recording 3:09
- 8 Engine 143 4:07
- 9 I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes alt version 3:54
- 10 Poor Orphan Child 4:32
- 11 On A Hill Lone And Grey 3:05
- 12 Waves on the Sea alt version 2:53
- 13 Distant Land to Roam alt version 3:16