Thanks to his long career and numerous musical milestones,
Ralph Stanley
has become an institution and then some. Indeed, if he'd done no more than play his role in the legendary
Stanley Brothers
with his brother
Carter
, his rep would've been sealed. But
Stanley
seems to have more musical lives than a hip cat, with his latest ascension following
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Great High Mountain
isn't so much a follow-up to
's
O Brother
work as a short retrospective, perhaps designed for the
bluegrass
fan unfamiliar with the span of his musical legacy. This is at least
Rebel
's third compilation of
's music, and while it's quite enjoyable, one starts to imagine that a box set -- and not another compilation -- is what's really needed. The real problem with
, though, is that it barely scratches the surface of
's work at
. Indeed, the album is only 37 minutes long, meaning that it could've been twice as long and still fit on one disc.
sweetens the package by adding one unreleased cut from 1976,
"I'm Lonesome Without You."
isn't a bad place for the
novice to start, but one might also consider other classic albums like
Saturday Night & Sunday Morning
. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.