Brock Ealey and Friends - Remembering The Stanley Brothers

(No Label No #) 2014

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This is a rather tasty & heart-felt tribute to the Stanley Brothers, by Brock Ealey and Friends. All but two of the tracks feature current CMB & trad-grass all-rounder, Alex Leach on banjo, harmony vocals and bass; with former CMB Danny Lee Davis channelling 'Ralph' on tenor vocals; and fiddle and mandolin duties being performed by Adam Burrows (from the Kevin Prater Band).

Soundwise, Brock & Co. do a good job of capturing the 'Stanley' sound, with (mostly) excellent vocals and some great banjo work from Alex Leach. Song-arrangement and production is very close to original 'Stanley' template, and overall the project is an undoubted labour of love.

The album was recorded at Round Mountain Sound in Jamestown, TN in March/April 2019 and produced by Brock & Wade Mitchell, with most of the guitar work being played on a 1953 Martin D28 previously owned by CMB lynch-pin James Alan Shelton.

Brock's current band 'Clearview' also featured on two tracks, which are competent trad-grass renditions of How Mountain Girls Can Love and If That's The Way You Feel.

The album was launched at the 'Hills Of Home' memorial festival at McClure in 2019, where Brock performed a cracking set with Alex Leach, Danny Lee Davis and Adam Burrows, plus Randall Hibbits on bass.

Brock is selling the CD's for $20 inc mailing inside the US (contact him for price elsewhere), and it can be ordered via www.facebook.com/brockealey or by email: 'brockealey at yahoo dot com'.

This is a fine tribute album. Grab a copy while you can!

• Brock Ealey: guitar, lead vocal
• Adam Burrows: fiddle, mandolin
• Danny Lee Davis: tenor vocal
• Alex Leach: banjo, bass, vocals
• Dale Perry: bass vocal (*)

NB: (*) track 16 only.

Clearview perform backing on tracks 6 and 12 with:

• Brock Ealey: guitar, lead vocal
• Jackson Carter: mandolin, tenor vocal
• Trenton Caruthers: fiddle
• Charles Geesling: banjo, baritone vocals
• Jacob Gray: bass

Other artwork / related images: