Life in Rural Music

Nearly all of the giants of bluegrass music's early days have all seen their work reissued in full. Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, and others have all seen anthologies - often multiple anthologies - devoted to their careers. Carl Story has not been so fortunate. Most of his classic early recordings disappeared along with 45s and 78s, and others haven't been heard since the LP era. Yet Carl Story truly was a bluegrass pioneer, and his Ramblin' Mountaineers included Red Rector, Tater Tate, Claude Boone, Bobby Thompson, and Bud and Willie Brewster, all of them heard on this collection.

Carl Story began his career in the flourishing Knoxville scene and carved out a niché as the Father of Bluegrass Gospel. He made either the first or best recordings of Light At The River, Family Reunion, I've Found A Hiding Place, Keep On The Firing Line, My Lord Keeps A Record, He Will Set Your Fields On Fire, Gone Home, Angels Rock Me To Sleep and Hank Williams' Are You Walking And Talking For The Lord. Story's Ramblin' Mountaineers also recorded the version of Duelin' Banjos that became the model for the 1972 hit recording.

This set includes every recording that Carl Story made for Mercury, Starday, and Columbia together with all of his Starday recordings from 1958 and '59, plus some ultra-rare demos recorded before World War II, proving that Carl Story was at the heart of the music that became bluegrass. The 4-CD set also includes a full-length book with Colin Escott's biography of Carl Story and Neil Rosenberg's and Eddie Stubbs' comprehensive discography. The last word on one of the first names in bluegrass music!