Favorites cover

Favorites

The Johnson Mountain Boys

Album · 1987 · Rounder CD 11509

Favorites is a 1987 Rounder compilation (CD 11509) of Johnson Mountain Boys recordings made between 1980 and 1985. Most of its twenty tracks were cut at Bias Recording Co. in Springfield, Virginia; five (“Georgia Stomp,” “Making Up Stories,” “Let’s Part the Best of Friends,” “Sugarloaf Mountain Special” and “Wild and Wicked World”) were recorded live at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, on 5 April 1983. The main lineup is Dudley Connell on guitar, Richard Underwood on banjo, David McLaughlin on mandolin, Eddie Stubbs on fiddle and Larry Robbins on bass. Three tracks from August 1980 — “Iron Curtain,” “John Henry, the Steel Drivin’ Man” and “When I Can Forget” — predate McLaughlin’s return: Eddie D’Zmura plays mandolin and Underwood sings lead. Hershall Wiginton joins the four-part singing on “God’s Not Dead,” “We’ll Still Sing On” and “I’ve Found a Hiding Place.”

The songs include Jimmie Rodgers’s “Blue Yodel #4,” Harlan Howard’s “Iron Curtain,” Jerry Reed’s “Misery Loves Company” and Albert Brumley’s “I’ve Found a Hiding Place,” along with originals by band members: Connell’s “Mother’s Voice Is in the Wind,” McLaughlin’s “Georgia Stomp” and Underwood’s “Five Speed.”

The Johnson Mountain Boys began in the Washington, D.C., area in 1975 as a duo of Connell and Ron Welch, became a five-piece band in January 1978, and signed with Rounder in 1980. They were inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2020.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone alt version 2:24
  2. 2 Mother's Voice Is In The Wind 4:30
  3. 3 Georgia Stomp - Live 2:31
  4. 4 Weary Hobo 3:18
  5. 5 God's Not Dead 2:56
  6. 6 Making Up Stories - Live 2:13
  7. 7 Iron Curtain 2:45
  8. 8 Let’s Part the Best of Friends Source Recording Carter Stanley · key G · 125 bpm 2:24
  9. 9 Five Speed 2:54
  10. 10 Misery Loves Company 3:03
  11. 11 The Waves on the Sea alt version 4:03
  12. 12 Weathered Gray Stone 4:32
  13. 13 John Henry, The Steel Drivin' Man 1:55
  14. 14 We'll Still Sing On 3:00
  15. 15 When I Can Forget 3:27
  16. 16 Sugarloaf Mountain Special - Live 2:12
  17. 17 Don't Throw Your Life Away 3:03
  18. 18 I’ve Found a Hiding Place alt version 3:25
  19. 19 Wild And Wicked World - Live 3:56
  20. 20 Blue Yodel #4 alt version 2:26

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