Ralph Stanley II
I Don’t Want Your Rambling Letters
“I Don’t Want Your Rambling Letters” is a Stanley Brothers song from the late King Records period, recorded by Carter Stanley, Ralph Stanley, and the Clinch Mountain Boys (Ralph Mayo on fiddle, Curley Lambert on mandolin, Vernon Derrick on bass and harmony) in 1959. The original 78/45 release was paired with “Hills of Roan County.”
The song is credited to Nathanial Montague, Ray Pennington, and Gene Redd, a songwriting team with roots in the rhythm-and-blues world of the early 1960s whose material was picked up by country and bluegrass performers including the Stanley Brothers. The lyric is a refusal-and-burn piece: the narrator has received another letter from a long-gone lover begging for reconciliation, and he has had enough — he doesn’t want her rambling letters, he doesn’t want her excuses, and he is finally and definitely done. Carter Stanley’s lead vocal carries the bitter-but-resigned weight of the lyric; Ralph’s tenor adds the higher edge of indignation in the chorus.
The song has had a long life in bluegrass and old-time-revival sets and has been covered by Doc Watson, the Seldom Scene, and the Del McCoury Band. It works as a moderate-tempo singer’s piece in G or A and is one of the cleaner Stanley Brothers recordings for younger pickers studying Carter Stanley’s lead phrasing — understated, bitter, and unhurried.
