Ralph Stanley gained a great deal of fame thanks to his work on the soundtrack to Oh Brother Where Art Thou, the landmark Coen brothers film that almost single-handedly revived the roots genre. His craggy voice seemed to come straight from the soil, sounding as timeless and as inevitable as death itself.
Stanley had tasted fame before, of course, as part of the ground-breaking Stanley Brothers, one of the groups that literally defined bluegrass music (bluegrass has always sounded older than it really is, but in truth the ‘modern’ form that we know today coalesced during the relatively recent 1950s). But musical tastes change, and by the '80s bluegrass was thoroughly marginalized. The format was fully mature, but while Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys kept the faith, few were listening …
Originally recorded in 1986, Can’t You Hear The Mountains Calling was intended as a regional, cassette-only release, the kind sold from stages in the absence of a recording deal or a promotional budget. But quality is a timeless commodity, and it’s now in its third release, this time on the venerable Rounder label, remixed and remastered, re-sequenced and renamed, but still capturing a working band in all its spontaneous musical glory.
Stanley has always preferred the stage to the studio, and when he does record it’s typically a no-nonsense affair. He knows what he wants, what sounds right, and he quietly goes about the business of attaining it. It’s not complicated - it’s a matter of finding an approach to a song that’s suited to his and the band’s talents, ensuring that the parts all contribute to the whole, and then playing the heck out of it. Here he’s supported by a road-tested band featuring Charlie Sizemore, a fine guitarist who’s subsequently established his own reputation as a leader, and who proves a strong lead and sympathetic harmony vocalist. Together he and Stanley don’t exactly replicate the magnificent harmonies of the Stanley Brothers – Sizemore is a distinctive stylist in his own right – but what they do come up with is every bit as musically satisfying.
Article comments