Act 4 cover

Act 4

The Seldom Scene

Album · 1979 · Sugar Hill SH 3709

Act Four was released in 1979 by Sugar Hill Records of Durham, North Carolina (SH 3709), the Seldom Scene’s first album for the label after their Rebel releases. John Starling had left the group in 1977, and he does not appear on this record; Phil Rosenthal, who had played alongside him on Baptizing (Rebel, 1978), plays guitar. The rest of the lineup is John Duffey on mandolin and guitar, Ben Eldridge on banjo, Mike Auldridge on dobro and pedal steel, and Tom Gray on bass. Discogs gives the recording dates as March to May 1979 at Bias Recording in Falls Church, Virginia, with Bill McElroy as engineer.

Of the twelve tracks, Rosenthal wrote “Leaving Harlan” and “Daddy Was a Railroad Man,” and Gray wrote “Walking the Blues.” The rest is a mix of country and bluegrass sources: Hank Thompson’s “Girl in the Night,” B.J. Shaver’s “Ride Me Down Easy,” Bill Monroe’s instrumental “Tennessee Blues,” Jimmie Rodgers’s “California Blues,” Bob Wills’s “San Antonio Rose,” Carter Stanley’s “This Weary Heart You Stole Away,” and the traditional “Life Is Like a Mountain Railway.”

Tracklist

  1. 1 Chim-Chim-Cher-ee 1:22
  2. 2 Little Georgia Rose alt version 2:56
  3. 3 Another Lonesome Day 2:07
  4. 4 Willie Boy 2:57
  5. 5 Faded Love alt version 2:57
  6. 6 Rider 5:25
  7. 7 Muddy Water alt version 3:02
  8. 8 Mean Mother Blues 3:04
  9. 9 Sing Me Back Home alt version 2:52
  10. 10 Hail To The Redskins 2:02
  11. 11 Don't Bother With White Satin 3:02
  12. 12 Heaven 3:00
  13. 13 This Weary Heart You Stole Away alt version 2:39

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