I remember first seeing Nathan Stanley performing with his grandfather Ralph Stanley as part of the backing group The Clinch Mountain Boys. At the time he was 14, sporting gaudy rings on each hand, but playing a mean mandolin. Now, all grown up, he is poised to carry on the Stanley Tradition and take Dr. Ralph\u2019s place at center stage when the aged bluegrass patriarch retires from touring at the end of 2014 at the age of 87.<\/p>\n
Or is he? As he steps into the spotlight in a way that Ralph\u2019s son, Ralph II has not yet done, he chose to issue Every Mile<\/i>, which is not the traditional bluegrass album one would expect. Instead, it is a country gospel album (oddly at this writing, the album has been nominated for a Dove Award for Bluegrass Gospel Album Of The Year. I would invite readers to listen to some actual bluegrass gospel albums I have reviewed on this site to compare and see if you agree with this designation). The disc features several of the big names in Southern gospel music today including Jeff & Sherri Easter, Adam Crabb, Wes Hampton,\u00a0Becky Isaacs Bowman, and Vince Gill. When I received my copy of this album, I was expecting something more in the vein of the Stanley gospel tradition, as seen in Clinch Mountain Gospel<\/i><\/a> or any number of Stanley gospel albums. But you have to hand it to him for stepping out to a wider audience. And Nathan\u2019s voice is reminiscent of the long deceased Carter Stanley, who bluegrass fans still remember fondly.<\/p>\n Some of the songs on Every Mile<\/i> are familiar traditional hymns or bluegrass gospel standards.\u00a0 On these Nathan comes through in vivid form. \u201cBaptism Of Jesse Taylor,\u201d a very countrified \u201cHeart That Will Never Break Again,\u201d the classic Stanley tune \u201cGoing Up Home To Live In Green Pastures,\u201d \u201cWhere No One Stands Alone,\u201d \u201cHand In Hand With Jesus,\u201d and \u201cLord You’re The Best Thing\u201d are all solid tracks.\u00a0 Other tracks, like the title tune, \u201cI Know Jesus Will See Me Through,\u201d and \u201cPiece Of Clay,\u201d are pleasant enough, but they in no way break the mold to become memorable.\u00a0 <\/p>\n The final track is \u201cYou Can’t Make Old Friends,\u201d which is a well-written song with a powerful message. But it is done as a duet with Ralph Stanley, which would be good, except the lyrics of the song seem to pine for someone who is deceased. The fact that Dr. Ralph is chiming in with phrases to the effect that he will always be with Nathan on stage and through life bespeak Ralph\u2019s death more than retirement. The fact that Ralph is still with us and is a part of this track in that way strikes this reviewer as macabre. Ralph\u2019s outstanding tenor could have been better suited to a more traditional duet like Nathan did with the other artists rather than relegated to an apparition rising from a grave that he is not yet in.<\/p>\n Every Mile<\/i> is Nathan Stanley\u2019s seventh album, and he does show a lot of promise and has an excellent singing voice. He clearly has a penchant for gospel music, which should give him a ready-made audience as he embarks on a solo career when Ralph leaves the stage. This third generation of bluegrass royalty will surely have an interesting career to listen to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":32134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9499],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-43883","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-nathan-stanley","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43883"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}