Customer Reviews

Distant Land to Roam

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The Carter Family Songs and Ralph Stanley. How could it not be anything less than great. I suppose it could as most musician have a cd in their catalog that they would rather forget.
You can look at the reviews of his other cds, and they will state how great a voice he has for country/oldtime (chose your label) music. There are a handful of musician who can sing this music and take you back to the times it was written and the people who wrote and sung it. Jeanette Carter comes to my mind this morning.
There are many fine modern covers that are good in their own right by Emmylou Harris and others, but the primal, elemental, born of the mountains voice of Ralph Stanley brings these songs to the place they always must return, the soil.

First off, I love Ralph Stanley. I been listening to Ralph and Carter Stanley for decades. I even got a small farm spread in Virginia close to Ralph Stanley. Seen Ralph and the group at the Russell County Fair. So, I knew what to expect. I was wrong.

This album is milestorne. Forget, that this is the Carter Family and I been singing and listening to this stuff for over fifty years. I have never heard Ralph Stanley this good and never heard the Carter Family songs done with such conviction. This album shows the genius of T Bone Burnett. He is able to take a person who I have heard for years and songs that I have known and sung for years-and make a musical materpiece. Bring out something that I never heard before.

The only experience that I can compare this to are seeing the photos of Ansel Adams. Lanscapes from the South West and towns in New Mexico where I had traveled. He captured an essence that I had driven by and missed every day.

God bless the talent of Ralph Stanley. He as seen a life which will never come around again. Thank you T Bone Burnett for being able to capture the deepest essence of Ralph Stanley.

moe armstrong

Though Ralph Stanley made his name as a purveyor of bluegrass, his earliest influences - the music that he and his brother Carter grew up with - was the songbook of fellow Virginians, The Carter Family. Stanley's musical legacy (both with his brother and solo) followed many of the conventions laid down by Bill Monroe, but the forlorn and mournful tone of his singing has always been rooted in the Southern songs of tragedy and deliverance collected by A.P. Carter. With this latest release, Stanley revisits the depression-era songs of his childhood, bringing the wisdom of his years (and the breathtaking burnish of his aging voice) to bear on the emotional foundations of his youth.

Backed by his own Clinch Mountain Boys (augmented by Mike Seeger on autoharp), this is a backporch folk album, without the speedy tempos and intricate picking of the group's bluegrass work. The song selection mixes familiar Carter songs like "Worried Man Blues" and "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" with less well-known entries that span the pain, longing, and ultimate faith that have sustained the Carter Family catalog for over a half-century. At 79, and with a lengthy career that's brought international fame, Stanley serves easily as a living link back to the hard-scrabble lives from which these songs sprang, and the family of artists that originally brought them to fame.

Those who've known Stanley's work since the early days, as well as those who came on-board with his broader emergence in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" will treasure this opportunity to hear a master circle back to his roots. The Carter Family's 75-year-old songbook once again proves itself a vital, living and agelessly relevant collection. [©2006 hyperbolium dot com]

I echo all the favorable comments made by other reviewers. Ralph Stanley singing these songs, born of the soil, sounds like what an Old Testament prophet might sound like. I loved in particular "Little Moses."

What left me perplexed was the sound quality. I'm wondering if T. Bone Burnett wanted a mono-like sound reminiscent of the thirties and forties a la the era of the Carter Family. The soundstage is compressed and sounds like all the instruments are massed in the center. There's little imaging, air or separation between guitars, autoharp, banjo, etc. and Ralph, of course, is dead center. In addition, there's a haze or veil over the recording. Again, I'm wondering if this was intended to mimic those bygone days.

Ralph Stanley may have the most distinctive and expressive voice in American music. Certainly few - if any - can convey the gravity and depth that his voice can. To listen to Ralph Stanley is to be reminded of what really matters in life. It is a voice without artifice or pretension, and nowhere does it sound more compelling than in this moving gem. I have been unable to stop playing it in the month or so I've owned it, and each time it transports me to a place as simple and enduring as the mountains of southwestern Virginia.

As a Stanley fan, I was a bit put off by the "Ralph Stanley" album that followed the O Brother craze. Too sparse, too morose, no bluegrass, whatever. But whether you are a longtime Stanleys fan, a Carter Family fan, or an "O Brother" fan, THIS album hits the sweet spot. Like someone else said, spreading Dr Ralph's genius on top of the Carters' genius - how could it go wrong in the hands of these master craftsmen? Each song has Ralph's soul and perfectly captures the old rough hewn Carter spirit too.

I enjoyed this CD a great deal. Of course, I am older and remember when I used to hear the Carter Family on the radio.
I believe Mr. Stanley is a true original and he sings it like it was done "Back Then". I recommend this CD to all lovers of "Old time" country or mountain music.

Ralph Stanley and his music is for all those who are left cold by slick productions and cleverly constructed music that aims at your pocket book and not your heart. Ralph is real and that feels good.

If you like the Original Carter Family Music you will love this CD. It is full of great guitar and autoharp and Ralph does excellant vocals.

Ralph Stanley has outdone himself on this CD. Not sure how he picked the songs, but he picked some good ones! The songs are fresh, the musicians are absolutely fantastic, and best of all, Ralph's voice is still as clear and beautiful as ever! I have listened to this CD about a million times and plan on listening a million more