Man Of Constant Sorrow - The Singles Collection 1946-1958

The Stanley Brothers were a bluegrass duo comprising Carter and Ralph Stanley, both born in Virginia in the mid-1920s, who started performing professionally with their band The Cinch Mountain Boys in the immediate post-war years, taking their musical lead from Bill Monroe, and becoming a key strand of the burgeoning bluegrass genre of that era.  This 58-track 2-CD collection comprises selected A and B sides on the Rich-R-Tone, Columbia and Mercury labels from these years, which include titles from their Columbia albums “The Stanley Brothers” and “The Angels Are Singing” and their Mercury albums “Country Pickin’ And Singin’” and “Hard Times”.  This was a key formative era of their career, before they travelled abroad and became popular in Europe, although they career as a duo came to an end with Ralph’s premature death in 1966.  This is an entertaining and enlightening showcase for two of the finest exponents of the bluegrass idiom.