Ben Marshall

The group was his sister Judy on guitar and vocals, his brothers David on banjo and lead vocals and Danny on mandolin and bass vocals, and their father, with Ben on bass. He was already on bass on the family’s early albums for the Gloryland label, Sing “The Valley” (1969) and Beautiful Is the Land Where I’m Going (1971), and he wrote “The Cradle, Cross, and Crown” for the second.

In May 1974 the family sang, unscheduled, at the Sunday gospel program of Ralph Stanley’s festival; Stanley took them on as a kind of manager and booking agent, and Rebel Records signed them. Their first Rebel album, Come Springtime (1975), recorded in Maryland in August and September 1974, was nearly all Marshall originals, including “I Just Want to Thank You Lord,” and Ben contributed “Ode to Madeline Murray.” On Requests (1976) he wrote “The Orphan” and “The Wars Rage On” and arranged the traditional “Amen, There’s a Higher Power,” and on The Lifeguard (1977), the last studio album, he wrote “What’s Ever Happened to Love.” The family disbanded soon after. Rebel later reissued their work on Best of the Marshall Family (1985) and its second volume (1987), and on The Legendary Marshall Family, volumes one (2002) and two (2004).