Clinch Mountain Country cover

Clinch Mountain Country

Ralph Stanley and Friends

Album · 1998 · Rebel REB 5001

Clinch Mountain Country is a two-CD set released by Rebel Records on 19 May 1998 (REB-5001). Ralph Stanley, then seventy, recorded it as a sequel to his 1992 album Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, again pairing the Clinch Mountain Boys with guest singers, some of whom had been unable to take part in the first one. Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Judy Marshall, Ricky Skaggs and Dwight Yoakam returned from that earlier album. New to the project were John Anderson, Junior Brown, Joe Diffie, Bob Dylan, Vern Gosdin, George Jones, Hal Ketchum, Jim Lauderdale, Tim O’Brien, Porter Wagoner, Gillian Welch, Marty Stuart, Rhonda Vincent and the Whites, among others. Dylan was the first to sign on.

The sessions ran from May to December 1997 at Masterlink Studios in Nashville, with additional recording at Quad Studios in Nashville and Maggard Sound Studio, and Bil VornDick produced. The band was Steve Sparkman on banjo, James Alan Shelton and Ralph Stanley II on guitars, John Rigsby on mandolin, James Price on fiddle and Jack Cooke on bass, and they cut the tracks live, usually in one or two takes. On “Pretty Polly” Stanley and Patty Loveless share the lead; Dylan sings lead on “The Lonesome River” with Stanley on harmony; Stanley leads “Memories of Mother” with Claire Lynch and “Gold Watch and Chain” with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Ralph Stanley II sings lead on three tracks.

The set came with a 36-page booklet. Rebel Records reports that it won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s awards for Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year.

Tracklist

  1. 1 How Mountain Girls Can Love alt version 2:04
  2. 2 Shouting on the Hills of Glory alt version 3:09
  3. 3 Pretty Polly alt version 4:04
  4. 4 The Window Up Above 2:37
  5. 5 I Just Got Wise 2:24
  6. 6 If That’s the Way You Feel alt version 2:27
  7. 7 Nobody’s Love Is Like Mine alt version 2:33
  8. 8 Memories of Mother alt version 3:09
  9. 9 The Lonesome River alt version 3:03
  10. 10 Old Love Letters alt version 3:09
  11. 11 She’s More to be Pitied alt version 2:50
  12. 12 When I Wake Up to Sleep No More Source Recording Marion W. Easterling · key A · 93 bpm 2:25
  13. 13 Another Night alt version 2:58
  14. 14 Gold Watch and Chain alt version 2:24
  15. 15 Thy Burdens Are Greater Than Mine 2:43
  16. 16 I’ll Take the Blame alt version 2:19
  17. 17 How Can We Thank Him For What He Has Done 2:41
  18. 18 I’ve Just Seen the Rock of Ages alt version 3:04
  19. 19 Pig in a Pen alt version 2:07
  20. 20 I Only Exist alt version 3:21
  21. 21 Lonesome Night alt version 3:19
  22. 22 Pretty Little Miss in the Garden Source Recording Traditional · key C · 101 bpm 2:51
  23. 23 The Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn alt version 2:27
  24. 24 Stone Walls and Steel Bars alt version 1:59
  25. 25 Beautiful Star of Bethlehem alt version 3:50
  26. 26 Let Me Love You One More Time 2:14
  27. 27 The White Dove alt version 3:00
  28. 28 Will You Ever Miss Me At All 3:27
  29. 29 Lonesome Banjo Man 3:55
  30. 30 Are You Afraid to Die alt version 2:45
  31. 31 Way Down Deep 2:12
  32. 32 If I Lose alt version 2:09
  33. 33 I’m Going That Way alt version 3:05
  34. 34 Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet alt version 2:29
  35. 35 My Deceitful Heart alt version 2:44
  36. 36 Bright Morning Star 2:55

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