East Virginia Blues

[ourgang]

This is one of the best takes on this song that I think that I've ever heard. And it sure doesn't hurt that Ralph and Carter are singing it. Pee Wee Lambert on Mandolin??

[poymando]

Ralph is fingerpicking the mandolin on this cut.

[ourgang]

Can't really tell if your serious or not, but, that is not Ralph finger-picking the mandolin. Pee Wee Lambert.

[Tom Smart]

Can't really tell if your serious or not, but, that is not Ralph finger-picking the mandolin. Pee Wee Lambert.

Poymando is correct. Ralph Stanley is fingerpicking a cross-tuned mandolin on that particular cut.

[Marty Henrickson]

Wow, I just found this 20-track 1956 live album as a digital download on amazon mp3 for $9.99. I do believe I am about to click "buy"!

Not at good as having the vintage vinyl, I realize, but sometimes instant gratification is good!

[Spencer]

Nate Bray played a similar version, but with a flat pick. This is from a live recording around 1963-5. It also on their Rounder CD. One of my favorite breaks. Could have been inspired by Ralph's version, since it was earlier.

Spencer

[ourgang]

I did find a recording of "East Virginia Blues" by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Jalyn JLP 118, in which Ralph is fingerpicking the mandolin, and it is obvious that this is what he is doing. Just sounds so Ralph Stanleyish. If I could figure out how to get it out of Itunes to YouTube I would post it. I still think that the version in the OP is flat-picked. Listen to the the triplet? at the very beginning of the song.

[Denny Gies]

Yep,,"An Evening Long Ago" is a fine album.

[poymando]

I think that Richard "Curly" Lambert (rather than Darrell "Pee Wee" Lambert) was the mandolin player on that session but I still believe that it was indeed Ralph fingerpicking the mandolin on East Virginia Blues.

[Tom Smart]

Poymando is correct.

Curly Lambert (not Pee Wee) was present at that session. (Not really a "session" so much as an informal recording, all done in one take with no planning or rehearsal according to Larry Ehrlich, who recorded it.) But on that particular cut, it's Ralph Stanley playing fingerpicked mandolin.

You can hear him doing the same thing on Mike Seeger's Third Annual Farewell Reunion album. Here's what Seeger had to say about it in the liner notes:

"Ralph Stanley: harmony vocal and finger-picked mandolin.... Back around 1960, I heard an informal recording of this song by Carter and Ralph, the Stanley Brothers, that had been made by Larry Ehrlich about 1957. On it, Ralph played a cross-tuned mandolin in this same banjo-like style. We've tried to get fairly close to that sound here."

[ourgang]

Here is the Jalyn118 version of "East Virginia Blues" with Ralph finger-picking the mandolin. Big difference between this one and the OP. Sounds like Larry Sparks singing the lead.

[Ivyguitar]

Anybody want to figure out this break and post a video?

[Tom Smart]

Here is the Jalyn118 version of "East Virginia Blues" with Ralph finger-picking the mandolin. Big difference between this one and the OP.

I give up.

[Marty Henrickson]

Both versions sound fingerpicked to me. The second one does have a bit louder, brasher tone on the mandolin.

[J.Albert]

Stanley-style mandolin.

Who'da thunk it?

I believe the "Evening Long Ago" recording was originally taped to be a radio broadcast. The singing has a "sweetness" that Carter and Ralph had in their earlier recordings, smooth and easy.

Just saw Ralph last Sunday. He's getting pretty old now, not sure how much longer he'll be able to perform, at least at the level he has for so many years. But just amazing that he's still here. There aren't many who can stand next to Bill Monroe as equals, but Dr. Stanley is one of them.

By the way, if you listen to the recording in post #1, you can also hear a harmonica in the background!

[Matteo]

By the way, if you listen to the recording in post #1, you can also hear a harmonica in the background!

That would be Ralph Mayo playing backup on fiddle
Matt.

[J.Albert]

"That would be Ralph Mayo playing backup on fiddle"

Ah, yes -- sounded very much like fiddle close in, but when he backed away, sounded different, almost harmonica-like!