I Wonder Where You Are Tonight is Arhoolie’s CD reissue (CD 5006, with a 1992 copyright date) of Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass, the 1968 LP. It adds two tracks from the same sessions that had never been issued, “I’m Coming Back but I Don’t Know When” and “Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong,” for fourteen in all.
The recording was made on December 9 and 10, 1967, in Glenrock, Pennsylvania, by Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie, with Tracy Schwarz helping to arrange the session. McCoury sang and played guitar, with Billy Baker on fiddle, Bill Emerson on banjo and Wayne Yates on mandolin, all three also singing; the bass player was Tommy Neal on the first day and Dewey Renfro on the second. Strachwitz wrote in the booklet that McCoury had no regular band then and brought together players for the date. He recorded on a two-track Magnecord machine through four Electro-Voice microphones, putting McCoury and the bass on one track and the rest of the band on the other. For the CD those two tracks were separated slightly and left uncompressed, in place of the compressed “stereo” mix he said the LP had needed.
The title is Johnny Bond’s song, which Strachwitz singled out when he first heard McCoury, singing lead with Bill Monroe’s band in California in May 1963.
Tracklist
- 1 Hey Hey, Bartender 2:40
- 2 Willie Roy 3:59
- 3 Prisoner’s Song alt version 2:43
- 4 I’m Coming Back But I Don’t Know When alt version 3:06
- 5 I Wonder Where You Are Tonight alt version 3:13
- 6 Fire on the Mountain alt version 2:03
- 7 You’re a Flower in the Wildwood 2:37
- 8 Used to Be alt version 2:05
- 9 Dreams alt version 3:42
- 10 Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On alt version 2:21
- 11 Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong alt version 3:33
- 12 Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms alt version 2:37
- 13 Blue Yodel #3 alt version 3:24
- 14 Beautiful Life alt version 2:43
