Drunkard’s Dream · My Deceitful Heart

Carter and Ralph Stanley made their first records for the small Rich-R-Tone label in late 1947, at the WOPI radio studio in Bristol, Virginia, with Pee Wee Lambert on mandolin, Ray Lambert on bass and Leslie Keith on fiddle. The first release, “Mother No Longer Awaits Me at Home” and “The Girl Behind the Bar,” appeared at the end of that year. At a 1948 session with Art Wooten on fiddle they recorded Bill Monroe’s “Molly and Tenbrooks.” Rich-R-Tone issued it in September 1948, a year before Columbia released the recording Monroe had made in October 1947.

Columbia signed the brothers in 1949, and their first session for the label, on 1 March 1949, was at Castle Studio in the Tulane Hotel in Nashville. Carter sang lead and Ralph tenor, and Pee Wee Lambert sang baritone and played mandolin, with Jay Hughes on bass and Bobby Sumner on fiddle. “The White Dove” and “Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet” were the first Columbia single that April. Les Woodie fiddled and Ernie Newton played bass on the later Columbia dates, including the 3 November 1950 session that produced “The Lonesome River” and “I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow.” The last Columbia session, in April 1952, was a trio with George Shuffler. That June they went back to Rich-R-Tone for a session at WLSI in Pikeville, Kentucky, where they cut “The Little Girl and the Dreadful Snake.”

Mercury recorded them from August 1953 to November 1957, with Dee Kilpatrick producing, mostly at Bradley’s studio and at RCA Victor’s studio in Nashville. Across those sessions Jim Williams, Curley Lambert and Bill Napier played mandolin, and Art Stamper, Ralph Mayo, Joe Meadows and Chubby Anthony fiddled.

From late 1958 they recorded for several labels at once. A Starday session at WCYB in Bristol that August produced “Gonna Paint the Town,” and on 30 September they began at King’s studio on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati, with Napier, Al Elliott on bass and Mayo. “She’s More to Be Pitied” backed with “Train 45” was their first King single, in October. While they were based in Live Oak, Florida, headlining the Suwannee River Jamboree on WNER, they cut sides for Starday and for Blue Ridge at the station. “Rank Stranger” was recorded for Starday in Jacksonville in May 1960.

After 1962 King was the only label issuing their singles. George Shuffler was the constant sideman there on guitar and bass, and his cross-picked lead guitar came out of the years when the band was often just the brothers and Shuffler. Curley Lambert, Vernon Derrick, Ralph Mayo and Art Stamper came and went. The last King sessions were in September 1965, and “Never Again” with “Prayer of a Truck Driver’s Son” was issued in May 1966. Carter Stanley died on 1 December 1966, and King went on releasing their singles into 1967.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.