Bill Lowe
Bill Lowe (1930–1988) was a singer and mandolin and bass player from Wythe County, Virginia, who recorded with Carter and Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys at four Mercury sessions in Nashville in 1954 and 1955. On the first two he played mandolin, on the last two bass, and on many of the songs he sang the third voice in the trio or the bass part in the gospel quartets.
He was born William Harold Lowe on 5 April 1930 in Rural Retreat, Virginia. His first session with the Stanleys came on 29 August 1954 at Bradley Studio in Nashville, produced by Dee Kilpatrick, with Lowe on mandolin, Joe Meadows on fiddle, Charlie Cline on lead guitar and Lightnin’ Chance on bass. They recorded Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” Carter’s “Calling from Heaven,” on which Lowe sang baritone, “Harbor of Love” and Ralph’s instrumental “Hard Times.” Back at Bradley’s on 28 November, with the same band less Cline, he sang baritone on Carter’s “Baby Girl” and the low tenor under Ralph’s high lead on “Say You’ll Take Me Back,” and the band also cut “I Worship You” and “You’re Still on My Mind.”
By the next session, on 5 April 1955, Jim Williams had taken the mandolin and Lowe played bass. That day the band recorded the gospel songs “I Hear My Savior Calling” and “Just a Little Talk with Jesus,” with Lowe singing bass on the latter, along with “So Blue,” “You’d Better Get Right,” “Tragic Love,” “Lonesome and Blue” and “Orange Blossom Special.” His last session with the brothers, on 19 December 1955 at Bradley Studios, had Curley Lambert on mandolin and Art Stamper on fiddle; besides the instrumentals “Clinch Mountain Blues” and “Big Tilda,” the band recorded “Angel Band” and “Will He Wait a Little Longer,” with Lowe singing bass in the quartet. Mercury issued the songs on singles such as “So Blue” backed with “You’d Better Get Right” and on the album Country Pickin’ and Singin’.
Lowe died on 12 November 1988 in Marion, Virginia.
