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Pick1949 - Posted - 01/14/2023: 21:00:48
Check out this live recording! It’s in 1949… and check out Ralph’s raw three finger technique in its early stages! I love this! It has more of a minor feel to me in this version instead of modal… really neat channel here on YouTube as well with lots of old live Stanley recordings and others as well! A really good resource for the old stuff!
youtu.be/SX1EYudprTI
Pick1949 - Posted - 01/14/2023: 21:05:19
youtu.be/YYUT5ckmxgc
Here are the boys doing Careless Love! Pee Wee singing the lead and Ralph on the banjo work through the breaks just like Earl and Bill! Really neat stuff!
stanleytone - Posted - 01/15/2023: 03:02:19
Never heard that before! Im gonna have to tab that booger out
Pick1949 - Posted - 01/15/2023: 03:37:22
Hey Gary, when you do how about post back here!? I want to sit down with it myself when I get time… and I’d like to cross check what I hear and come up with with what you do as well…!
stanleytone - Posted - 01/15/2023: 05:53:27
You got it pick!
The Old Timer - Posted - 01/15/2023: 07:28:03
VERY interesting! I wonder how that was recorded? Wire or home disc?
Ralph is really rattling that ol' banjer tempo-wise, much faster than their record of about that time. Very clean machine-gun picking. Back then Ralph sounded his most "like Earl", having just been coached on the style by Earl himself. Somewhere there's a live tape of Earl on the radio playing Pretty Polly, and it's mighty interesting to hear his choice of notes! Pee Wee is playing some busy back up on Polly behind Ralph at times too. I think they're in G major (by Carter's guitar) and Ralph is hitting that modal C note that he used all the time decades later.
As far as Careless Love, the classic Opry recordings of Bill and Earl are in C or D (depending on tape speed), with Earl in Drop C tuning. It's a whole different feel and sound. Ralph is trying to duplicate it but playing capoed in C, in regular G style tuning. Great to hear Ralph and Pee Wee in their "do it like Bill" mode.
Note how Carter's emcee voice is much like Charlie Monroe, with a nearly Tidewater accent...(not that Charlie was from the Tidewater, but he often sounded that way). Charlie worked WCYB in those early years too. Famous story that Charlie stormed into WCYB one day threatening to beat the tar out of Lester Flatt for singing Charlie's songs (perhaps Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms?).
stanleytone - Posted - 01/15/2023: 08:18:18
Here ua go pick. Hope we are close . That first measure of line two it sounds like ralph aimed for the 3rd fret on first string but wound up on the 2nd fret. Could play it either way but i kinda like the 2nd fret . Kinda more like Ralphs charm. That very last measure i just threw in as filler
Pick1949 - Posted - 01/16/2023: 05:36:30
Nice work Gary! That’s pretty well dead on I’m thinking…? So neat to get to hear this early live cut!
stanleytone - Posted - 01/16/2023: 05:53:12
Yeah i think its pretty dead on. Those old recordings can be a pain the the butt to hear the little things. I got good hearing aids when i retired. I wear them sporadically.
They sync with my phone and i can hear the youtube vids much clearer than before. I just still get amazed at how Ralph can sound complicated yet simple at the same time
ChunoTheDog - Posted - 01/16/2023: 19:03:57
Learned something new today..I wonder which Starday record Ralph used that flathead on?
Edited by - ChunoTheDog on 01/16/2023 19:19:04
stanleytone - Posted - 01/17/2023: 03:25:42
Dont you just love that book Chuno? Every bluegrass banjo player should have a copy.
I once heard somewhere that on Ralphs Live In Japan album he played a flathead. Anyone know for sure?
Edited by - stanleytone on 01/17/2023 03:29:30
Ira Gitlin - Posted - 01/17/2023: 06:25:50
According to Gary Reid's The Music of the Stanley Brothers, they recorded "Little Maggie" in May or June 1960 at their first session for Starday Records. It seems to have been released on Starday SLP-201, The Mountain Music Sound Of The Stanley Brothers (1962).
clinchmountainecho.co.uk/disc/slp201.php
Pick1949 - Posted - 01/17/2023: 07:18:39
Yes Gary, the Live in Japan album was on a flat head made by another banjo player named Johnny Whisnant (another great banjo player). At least that’s what my findings have led me to discovering. Ralph borrowed the banjo (a Gibson “All American” copy) to do the tour because he didn’t want to risk traveling over seas with his style 5… and he liked the way the All American sounded. I have read a few things about this and will try to post some if I can dig them up again.
And Antoine, yes Ralph recorded that Starday version of Little Maggie on an unknown flathead. If you look at enough old pictures from the early days, you can see that Ralph was definitely a horse trader… and had many banjos through them years. Pretty interesting some of the banjos he has been photographed with!
youtu.be/msOPKTbpAUk
This is the version Ralph was referring to that he recorded when he was in possession of the flathead he mentions in the Masters of the Five String Banjo book.
Edited by - Pick1949 on 01/17/2023 07:31:09
Pick1949 - Posted - 01/17/2023: 07:23:31
Here is the info on that flathead played by Ralph from the Japan tour back then… it’s written by Chris Smith. A fellow Stanley style player (a dang excellent one at that) that used to play with “Beanpole”, Larry Efaw’s dad, along with Larry and the great band The Bluegrass Mountaineers!
bluegrasstoday.com/the-mystery...o-solved/
Edited by - Pick1949 on 01/17/2023 07:23:58
Pick1949 - Posted - 01/17/2023: 07:37:46
Also seems I can recall Dick (The Old Timer) posting a thread a year or so ago about a old photo that had Ralph playing a coke bottle shapped peg head… ? That was interesting as well…
Found it… the pics still work if you click the link.
banjohangout.org/archive/381236
ChunoTheDog - Posted - 01/17/2023: 08:05:34
quote:
Originally posted by stanleytone
Dont you just love that book Chuno? Every bluegrass banjo player should have a copy.
I once heard somewhere that on Ralphs Live In Japan album he played a flathead. Anyone know for sure?
Yes! It's such a gem, everytime I open the book I discover something new. So much thought and detail into that thing. Everyone should have a copy!
ChunoTheDog - Posted - 01/17/2023: 08:11:52
quote:
Originally posted by Pick1949
Yes Gary, the Live in Japan album was on a flat head made by another banjo player named Johnny Whisnant (another great banjo player). At least that’s what my findings have led me to discovering. Ralph borrowed the banjo (a Gibson “All American” copy) to do the tour because he didn’t want to risk traveling over seas with his style 5… and he liked the way the All American sounded. I have read a few things about this and will try to post some if I can dig them up again.
And Antoine, yes Ralph recorded that Starday version of Little Maggie on an unknown flathead. If you look at enough old pictures from the early days, you can see that Ralph was definitely a horse trader… and had many banjos through them years. Pretty interesting some of the banjos he has been photographed with!
youtu.be/msOPKTbpAUk
This is the version Ralph was referring to that he recorded when he was in possession of the flathead he mentions in the Masters of the Five String Banjo book.
Dang, that's cool. You're right, he's even picking a flathead on the Live in Japan album cover, such a great album btw with Roy Lee singing lead, sounding just like Carter.
I noticed Ralph had a few different Mastertones of all eras on the LP cover pictures in the early years. Post-war fly swatter and the early RB-4 I remember the most.
I kinda figured maybe those were instruments he was given to hold in those pictures haha neat that he played 'em.
Side note: It bugs me that he calls his old Style 5 a Granada in the book! lol
Edited by - ChunoTheDog on 01/17/2023 08:12:33
Pick1949 - Posted - 01/17/2023: 10:15:05
Ha! Yeah, he later did refer to it as a style 5… back then, a lot of them guys referred to a gold plated banjo as a instant “Granada” so I’ve been told!
Edited by - Pick1949 on 01/17/2023 10:15:50
stanleytone - Posted - 01/17/2023: 13:53:10
Pick i used to have an instrumental album by the bluegrass moutaineers. I loved the banjo playing on it!
