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The 1966 passing of Ralph Stanley's older brother Carter ended their 20-plus year reign as a major force in mountain music, and briefly sidelined the younger Carter with grief. The following year Ralph Stanley rededicated himself to carrying on the tradition, and in doing so, created a solo career as a bandleader and songwriter that's outlasted the duo's time by two decades. His first work as the solo leader of the Clinch Mountain Boys included three albums for King that are excerpted here: 1967's "Brand New Country Songs," 1968's "Over the Sunset Hill," and 1969's tribute to his late brother, "Hills of Home." Unsurprisingly, Stanley's initial outpouring of music carried on the sounds and themes of the Stanley Brothers, offering hill-bred string-band music that had the high-and-lonesome vocals of bluegrass but without the devotion to hot picking of his contemporaries. With guitarist Larry Sparks stepping up to the microphone, Stanley found another compelling duet partner to provide the high harmony for his songs of God, love, death, family and hard times. Everyone's in top-form throughout, praising Jesus, exploring the god-fearing side of Jesse James, and pining for a mean hill-country. There's fractured families, shattered love, and dissolute poverty, leavened only briefly by the comic joys of "Let's Go to the Fair.". Jimmy Martin adds a guest vocal to the love song, "Darling Brown Eyes," and fiddler Curley Ray Cline is showcased on the instrumental "Lost Train." Stanley speaks directly to his departed brother on "Hills of Home" and contemplates his own impending passing on "I Wanna Go Home." It's not "O Death," or "Man of Constant Sorrow," but it's in the same patch. Those who want to hear it all can find the entirety of all three albums on the box set "Poor Rambler," but as a single disc, this is a superb sampler. It'd be nice to have personnel and session data, but that's a quibble given the uniformly high quality of the music. 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]Read full review
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