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The Stanley Brothers - My Deceitful Heart / Drunkard's Dream

(King 5674) Aug 1962

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This 7" features two tracks that were recorded in May 1962.

'Billboard' magazine reviewed the single in their 25th Aug 1962 edition, giving both sides four-stars. My Deceitful Heart was described as "An old fashioned country weeper, done with style by the boys over crying fiddles and plunking banjo backing"; and Drunkard's Dream as "Another sad tale, done in three-beat fashion. Boys give it a meaningful delivery, making the message ring true".^[1]

Surprisingly My Deceitful Heart was not featured on any Stanley Brothers album or compilation until the 1983 Collectors Edition, Vol. 4 LP. The track also seems to have been a favourite of Keith Whitley's as it appears on the Keith Whitley & Ricky Skaggs LP, Second Generation Bluegrass, and Keith also sang another version on Ralph's 1976 Old Home Place album. Ralph also cut another version on 1998's Clinch Mountain Country, with Ralph II singing lead.

Drunkard's Dream was later included on the Country Folk Music Spotlight LP in Dec 1963, where the liner notes claim the song was "...taught to Carter Stanley, in his early boyhood by one of the neighbors down the road." A decade later, Ralph also sang on Gene Parson's renditon of the song on his Kindling album.

Drunkard's Dream is a variation of an old English folk ballad called The Husband's Dream,^[2] which by the mid 1800's had found it's way to Mid Tennessee and Missouri.^[3]

Both sides of the single can be found on The King Years, 1961-1965 4xCD box set.

For a detailed breakdown and background to the Stanley's sessions, check Gary B. Reid's The Music Of The Stanley Brothers book, pages 132-134 and 161-162.

^{[1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ORcEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=king+5674+billboard+stanley&source=bl&ots=RlI8MswXbX&sig=gIcV9S4X1huwpW2SIiK-Y8ZgYec&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiC6-KD6t7VAhVlOMAKHWP4DcQQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&q=king%205674%20billboard%20stanley&f=false
[2] One version can be found in the Wiltshire Community History section of Wiltshire Council's website: https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getfolk.php?id=342
[3] Charles K. Wolfe's book "Folk Songs Of Middle Tennessee - The George Boswell Collection". See https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QB2Dc9zeoWwC&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&dq=the+husband%27s+dream+folk+song+origin&source=bl&ots=0PV1DpzU4r&sig=Ieo5-hpyDVwXuUeC-0AUs5P9u-w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1xMmynt_VAhVBDMAKHXIrBDIQ6AEIMDAC#v=onepage&q=the%20husband%27s%20dream%20folk%20song%20origin&f=false}