Can’t You Hear the Mountains Calling is the title Rounder Records has given to a reissued Ralph Stanley CD that has risen from humble beginnings.

It was originally released as Sixteen Years on cassette tape in 1985 on Stanley’s Rivertracks label, intended for regional distribution, and then re-released ten years later on Copper Creek. Accompanying Ralph was one of the choice editions of The Clinch Mountain Boys, with Charlie Sizemore on guitar and lead vocals, Junior Blankenship on lead guitar, Curly Ray Cline on fiddle and Jack Cooke on bass.

Gary Reid of Copper Creek, an historian of the music of Ralph Stanley, speaks quite highly of this recording, and had at one time planned a repacked reissue on his label.

“I always thought this was one of the best efforts Charlie Sizemore did with Ralph.”

Rounder has now remastered the original recording and will release it yet again on September 22. Songs include:

Charlie Sizemore contributes some remembrances of this session in the liner notes, saying that it was recorded in the “old time way.” All the tracks were cut live on a single day in the studio, with all mixing completed on the next. He then tackles the question of why this recording succeeds so well in capturing the Stanley sound.

“While not entirely comfortable with the recording process, during the making of this record he almost seems to be having fun. Curly Ray Cline and Jack Cooke, veterans both, are on top of their game. Nevertheless, the configuration of this band is relatively new. Despite the long hours, complacency is not an issue. And if it has any designs on this recording session, Ralph makes short work of thwarting it ‚Äì not only by example, which is customary, but also with direct, spoken exhortations and admonitions, which is rare. At times he urges the band, in so many words, to stay alert. So part of the answer may lie here.

Or it could matter that Ralph produced and initially released this recording on his own rather than for a record company. Under no deadline and with no one looking over his shoulder, so to speak, he has no one to please but his fans and himself. Perhaps this freedom provides a lack of self-consciousness, at once energizing and relaxing him.”

This is one I will be eagerly anticipating.

Friday’s (4/25) edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX promises a very special performance by The Road Scholars, a “one weekend only” band with some high octane vocal power. In addition to their live radio appearance, they will be performing at EarthFest 2008 on the East Tennessee State University Campus on April 26.

The group features both Charlie Sizemore and Dale Ann Bradley, two of the finest voices in modern bluegrass music, along with John Golden on banjo, Roscoe Morgan on mandolin and John Miller on bass.

Blue Plate Special airs at noon (EDT). The show originates from Knoxville, TN and is broadcast in that market at 102.9 FM – and via live streaming online.

John Pennell, bass player with The Charlie Sizemore Band, asked us to post this remembrance of his friend, Wayne Fields, who died on March 21.

Wayne played banjo with Sizemore, and is featured on his recent CD, Good News, released in 2007. Pennell is a member of Sizemore’s band as well, and is a noted songwriter in his own right.

Here is his heartfelt eulogy to Wayne:

Wayne Fields (1952-2008)

This letter is not only for Wayne Fields, and his family, it is just as much for me and anyone who knew him – and had so much more they wished to have said to him while he was here.

Wayne Fields was my friend and I loved him as did everyone who knew him. He was, of course, an incredible banjo player and musician. Being in a band with him is one of the greatest musical experiences I have had. He had that rare ability to make you feel so good about being on stage with him that it seemed to make you a better player. I recall looking over at him on stage and he’d give me that nod and wink to let me know he was enjoying my playing. This just made me feel like a million dollars. He always told me how much he enjoyed playing with us and how much he was looking forward to our next show.

And this from someone who was suffering physically about as much as a person could. When we cut our album “Good News”, Wayne was just a few weeks removed from chemotherapy and he told us he could barely feel his fingertips. Well, listen to that album and tell me if you think his playing sounds like a person struggling with a life threatening disease. He was the consummate pro. He played flawlessly on that album and was the spark that made us all want to do and play better. (more…)

Wayne Fields, most recently the banjo player with The Charlie Sizemore Band, passed away from complications associated with cancer on March 21.

The deminutive Fields was born in Hazard, Kentucky, and moved to the Lexington area at a young age. He started playing a guitar in his church at the age of eleven and grew up listening to Flatt and Scruggs on the radio.

Wayne and his brothers, Larry and Bill, plus a couple of friends put a band together and began performing all over Lexington. Although they performed all types of music, Field’s heart was always with bluegrass and the banjo.

Mostly self-taught, Fields had three lessons from a fellow employee at the local Holiday Inn, J.D. Crowe, who was playing there at the time along with Larry Rice, Tony Rice, and Bobby Sloan.

In 1977, he got his first job playing banjo for The Boys from Indiana, replacing Noah Crase. While he was a member of the band, they made an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry and on The Porter Wagoner Show.

Four years later Fields took a job with Renfro Valley regular John Cosby and the Bluegrass Drifters, with whom he won the first SPBGMA band contest in 1984.

Later that year, Wayne, his brother Bill, Ricky Wasson and Rick Johnson formed the group Southern Blend with whom he recorded and toured for 9 years. He also played with another Renfro Valley band Wilderness Trail. Other members included Dave Osborne & Jeff Parker (who played with Lonesome River Band and is now with Dailey & Vincent).

Later Fields joined J.D. Crowe, playing mandolin and singing tenor vocals for The New South.

During the last 10 years he has performed with various groups including the family band Driftwood, Gary Strong & Hardtimes, Rick Bartley & Blackwater, as well as with The Charlie Sizemore Band.

Fields is featured playing banjo and singing harmony on the stellar Charlie Sizemore album Good News that was released last year.

Wayne Fields leaves Tina, his wife, two daughters, Christina and Tiffany, and two sons Scott and Charles, both active bluegrass musicians. (more…)