Distant Land to Roam
Given the direct line of progression between the songs of the Carter Family and the mountain music of the Stanley Brothers, it's surprising that it's taken the venerable Ralph Stanley more than a hundred albums before releasing one devoted solely to the Carters. The wait was worth it, for the rough-hewn soulfulness of Stanley's vocals and the unvarnished production truly conjure a distant land--a musical expanse far removed from the present--of seminal songs suffused with faith and a strong sense of mortality. From train songs ("Engine 143") to seafaring songs ("Waves on the Sea") to prisoner songs (the oft-recorded "Worried Man Blues"), Stanley takes material written by A.P. Carter or popularized by the Carter Family and plumbs the emotional depths. Many of these songs are spirituals, with guest autoharp by Mike Seeger and call-and-response harmonies on the opening "God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign," while the uptempo "Keep on the Firing Line" suggests a soldier-like commitment to Christ and the harmony-laden hymn "On a Hill Lone and Grey" describes the Crucifixion. The most familiar song here, "Motherless Children," is also the most powerful, with Stanley's a cappella first verse joined by the mournful strains of a funereal fiddle for the rest of the song. With "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes," the album shows how the Carter Family inspired what we've since called country music.--Don McLeeseMore from Ralph Stanley and the Carter FamilyThe Complete Columbia Stanley BrothersThe Stanley BrothersThe Complete Mercury RecordingsThe Stanley BrothersClinch Mountain CountryRalph Stanley & FriendsCan the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music's First FamilyThe Carter FamilyThe Carter Family: 1927-1934The Carter FamilyThe Carter Family, Vol. 2: 1935-1941The Carter Family