Major label
Universal
, which controls the catalog of
Mercury Records
, has taken a welcome, if belated, interest in the recordings made for
Mercury
by
the Stanley Brothers
during their tenure there from 1953 to 1958, issuing a full-priced compilation,
Angel Band: The Classic Mercury Recordings
in 1995, and an entry in the midline-priced
20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection
series of artist best-ofs in 2002. Annotator
Mary Katherine Aldin
makes no bones about the reason for
's decision to plump for this two-disc set of
' complete
recordings, mentioning the appearance of the track
"Angel Band"
on the multi-million-selling
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
soundtrack
in the opening paragraph of her liner notes. The success of that 2000 album has opened the reissue floodgates for more than one
bluegrass
act, and this is one of the happier results.
The Stanley Brothers
(with the varying personnel of their three-or four-piece backing group,
the Clinch Mountain Boys
), were still-young
veterans when they arrived at
in 1953, guitarist
Carter
about to turn 28, and banjoist
Ralph
26. Recording was not the primary element in their career; they managed only 46 tracks in 12 sessions in four-and-a-half years (the last two selections come from an undated session for
Smash
, a label acquired by
). But that gave them time to come up with excellent original material; 37 of the songs here were written by one or both of the brothers. The cover songs include
standards
like
"Orange Blossom Special"
and
"Blue Moon of Kentucky."
The subject matter consisted mostly of songs of love gone wrong, with religious statements providing some relief from the romantic grief. The playing, fast or slow, is consistently impressive
picking on guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and bass, and
's lead vocals, with
chiming in on high tenor, are the epitome of
singing. This is classic work of its type. (The collection includes four tracks previously unreleased in the U.S.) ~ William Ruhlmann