Live in Japan captures Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys before a Tokyo audience on May 5, 1971, near the height of the band's early-1970s touring strength. The lineup featured Roy Lee Centers — whose lead voice eerily recalled Stanley's late brother Carter — on guitar, alongside Curly Ray Cline's fiddle and Jack Cooke's bass. The set runs through the core of Stanley's repertoire: Carter Stanley songs like 'The White Dove,' the signatures 'Rank Strangers' and 'I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow,' and uptempo numbers such as 'How Mountain Girls Can Love.' Stanley always described his music as old-time mountain music rather than bluegrass, and this concert document — stark, intense, and unadorned — bears that out. Issued on Japan's Seven Seas label and later on Rebel, it also testifies to how far the old mountain sound traveled, finding a devoted audience an ocean from the Clinch Mountains.
Tracklist
- 1 All the Good Times Are Past and Gone Source Recording 2:35
- 2 How Mountain Girls Can Love alt version
- 3 I Hear A Choo Choo Coming alt version 2:36
- 4 I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow alt version
- 5 Love Me Darling Just Tonight alt version
- 6 Memories of Mother alt version
- 7 Mountain Dew alt version
- 8 Old Country Church alt version 2:13
- 9 Rank Strangers alt version
- 10 Ridin’ That Midnight Train alt version
- 11 The White Dove alt version
- 12 Uncle Pen alt version
