Sings His Favorites: Now and Then

Sings His Favorites: Now and Then is a Ralph Stanley album issued on his own, without a label or catalog number, around 2005 and sold at his shows. Stanley produced it from several sessions in 2004 at Maggard Sound Studio in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, engineered by Alan Maggard.

The Clinch Mountain Boys of the day play on it: Ralph Stanley II on guitar and vocals, John Rigsby on fiddle and mandolin and vocals, James Alan Shelton on lead guitar and Jack Cooke on bass and vocals, with Steve Sparkman on banjo on some tracks and Ralph’s own clawhammer banjo on others; Nathan Stanley joins on three songs.

As the title says, it mixes songs Stanley had long sung with newer favorites, among them “Rank Strangers,” “Rocky Island” and “Purple Robe.” Seven of its recordings later reached a wider audience on the 2016 compilation The Definitive Collection.