Room at the Top of the Stairs

The lyric is a quiet, sorrowful character study — a lonely woman who lives by herself in a single room at the top of a flight of stairs on a dark and windy street, and the regret and lost love that have brought her there. That kind of plain, deeply felt storytelling, sung in Ralph Stanley’s mournful mountain voice, gave the song real poignancy.

The song became a favorite among bluegrass musicians and has been recorded by a range of later artists.