Long Journey Home

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Long Journey Home album cover
Album Information
EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 16   Total Length: 36:47

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A different side of the Stanley Brothers

emusicsincemay2002

Throughout the '50's, the Stanleys were known for a hard-driving sound, more hillbilly than the changing tastes in country could bear. These woodshed recordings drop the fiddle, mandolin and bass, keep the high lonesome brother harmonies, and put the groundbreaking cross-picked lead guitar of George Shuffler front and center. The recording is intimate and the sound quality very good considering the year it was done. The result is an understated masterpiece of Appalachian soul; the version of "Will You Miss Me?" a must-have.

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Think you know these songs?

RadioRandy

Think again. Shuffler's picking brings a whole new dimension to these familiar classics. As casual as a glass of tea on the porch, precise as a carpenter's rule, Shuffler's 6-string work cascades up and down, round and round, like a mountain road. Carter sounds very strong on this, invested you might say; and Ralph's unmistakable tenor adds the mountain soul that the Stanley Brothers have always been famous for, and his banjo picking is superb. The recordings sound great, and are a welcome addition to my Stanley collection.

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They Say All Music Guide

In the early 1960s, when the Stanley Brothers were between record labels, they spent a week playing at Johnny’s Used Cars near Baltimore. Johnny Wilbanks loved bluegrass music and used it as a sales device, paying bands to play in his lot and sponsoring a radio show that broadcast from his office. He also ran the small Wango label, for which the Stanleys recorded four albums after their parking lot engagement. This is the second of those four, originally issued as Wango 104 and reissued on LP by County in 1972 and on CD by Rebel in 1990. The material is classic Stanley Brothers: “Pretty Polly,” “Rabbit in a Log,” and the well-known title track. The other three albums in the series focused on gospel material, but this one is strictly secular and prominently features Ralph Stanley’s flying-ice-chips banjo style and, even better, the pioneering cross-picking of guitarist George Shuffler on excellent performances of “Wildwood Flower” and “Will You Miss Me.” But, as always, the most powerful moments are those that find Ralph Stanley’s melismatic mountain tenor taking center stage, as on “Pretty Polly.” A must for Stanley fans. – Rick Anderson

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