Fast Tracks
December, 1997
In 1948 Ralph and Carter Stanley heard Bill Monroe's Stewball rewrite, Molly and Tenbrooks, on the radio. They put out their record of it before Monroe could release his, and that was the beginning of bluegrass as a movement. The Stanley Brothers' Earliest Recordings (Rich-R-Tone) has all 14 songs they recorded in the late Forties and early Fifties for that label. These beautiful songs are suffused with death, suffering, drunkenness, violence and love both blessed and bitter (all of which come t...
