1/23/2005
Dear Sid: SORRY! You said "an ODD title", I read it as an "OLD" title. I think "An Evening Long Ago" wasn't released publicly until recently. I'm advised it was sold ONLY at concerts (that's also what the CD liner says). I'd neither seen nor heard of anything called "An Evening Long Ago" until I walked into a "Borders" near Cleveland, Ohio where I saw it & 2 books on the Stanley Brothers which I'd never seen before along with "Clinch Mountain Sweethearts" & another Stanley Brothers CD I'd never seen. I purchased one copy right then of all 3 CD's & the book, then ordered additional copies of the CD's online. I've never heard some of the songs listed on the liner before & I try to stay current & watch royalty statements on Stanley Brothers songs. That doesn't mean I didn't miss some of them, Daddy wrote 113 songs in 18 years, & some of them are similarly named & 9 of them are co-written with Ralph & 2 with other folks to the best of my knowledge. It started out as "An EVENING Long Ago", I think, & then Daddy & Ralph got warmed up & started harmonizing with their wonderful CM Boys who were present & it turned into "An EARLY MORNING Long Ago", perpahs after they got finished with the recording session. Whether it was morning or evening or high noon, as I said earlier, I've only been able to bring myself to listen to ONE side of this CD, but it represents to me the God-given talent & pure musical genius which two dirt-poor brothers from nowhere in the Clinch Mountains were lucky enough to be born with. You just don't, in my opinion, make a CD recording of that many songs, off the cuff, after 14 or so hours of doing several previous shows during a day, when you're dead tired unless it's just inside you, you can draw on your singing & playing ability from somewhere deep within you where only you can go & touch it & bring it out. Both Daddy & Ralph were born with that beyond all doubt. Of the songs I've listened to on "An Evening Long Ago", I was particularly moved by "Come All Ye Tenderhearted". This was a song I have never listened to (& I've listened to it hundreds of times) without being moved to tears at the plight of this poor mother who lost her babies through an Act of God & who would probably live with this catastrphic loss & guilt for the rest of her life. Daddy sings it in a way that takes me right there, I'm in that woman's skin, and as a mother, suffer her anguish & pain. Ralph did the same thing with "Oh Death" in OBWAT-you're right in that poor Mr. Johnson's skin, quaking in your boots & praying to God to spare you from an unjust, grusly, painful death for being born with black skin. I thought to myself, gee, I'm glad they don't lynch folks for having blue eyes or blonde hair, because I'd feel just like that poor Mr. Johnson did. The point is, Ralph took you into that moment in Johnson's life & he was able to allow you to experience all those feelings Mr. Johnson felt. In my opnion, in " Come All Ye Tenderhearted", Daddy's tired, tender, wonderfully beautiful emotional feelings and empathy for that poor mother did the same thing for listeners and I am there, crying my heart out for those lost babies & empathizing with that mother & knowing how I'd feel it I'd lost my baby that way. I wish only that I'd been born with Carter & Ralph Stanley's talents & abilities to musically transport an audience to another place, time, & the ability to cause that audience to feel & experience with astounding reality such feelings of sadness, fear, regret, or whateever they were singsing about which they were born with. Sid, I'm so sorry I didn't read your answer more carefully-it would perhaps be odd to call it evening when it was early morning, you're exactly right. However, I think it started in the evening perhaps. Anyway, those of you who haven't heard it, you've missed a real jewel in The Stanley Brothers crown in my opinion. Cordially your friend, Doris Stanley Bradley Bluegrass Bulletin Board brought to you by the fan club of Dr Ralph Stanley & His Clinch Mountain Boys subscribe or unsubscribe at http://drralphstanley.com/
