Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys recorded Hills of Home (King KSD 1069) at Starday Studios in Nashville on 14 and 15 July 1969, and King issued it that year. Stanley sang and played banjo, with Larry Sparks on guitar, Jimmy Martin on guitar and mandolin, Curly Ray Cline on fiddle and Jim McCall on bass. Sparks had joined as Stanley’s guitarist after Carter Stanley died in December 1966. These were among his last sessions with the band, which he left late in 1969 to form the Lonesome Ramblers.
Nine of the twelve pieces carry Ralph Stanley writing credits. He is the sole writer of “Darling Brown Eyes,” “Let’s Go to the Fair,” “Dog-gone Shame” and the instrumental “Coosy.” He shares credit for “Midnight Storm” and “The Kitten and the Cat” with Carter, for “California” with Cline, for “Medicine Springs” with Bill Grant, and for the title song with Wendy Smith. “My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane” is credited as his arrangement. The other two songs are Bill Browning’s “Dark Hollow” and “I Only Exist,” which Stanley and Sparks recorded here for the first time. King also paired “Hills of Home” with “Let’s Go to the Fair” on a single, King 6252.
Tracklist
- 1 Beautiful Hills of Home 3:20
- 2 I Only Exist Source Recording 3:21
- 3 Dark Hollow alt version
