The Stanley Brothers: The Best of the Best of the Stanley Brothers
Genre: Bluegrass	Dates: 1953-1958

Ralph Stanley sounded almost as ancient on these recordings as he would over 40 years later on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Part of that's due to the lyrics of these bluegrass classics, the most fascinating of which come from the Albert Brumley-penned lead cut:

I wandered again to my home in the mountain
Where in youths early dawn I was happy and free
I looked for my friends but I never could find them
I found they were all rank strangers to me

Everybody I met seemed to be a rank stranger
No mother no dad not a friend I could see
They knew not my name and I knew not their faces
I found they were all rank strangers to me

One can comb the work of postmodern American songwriters and find few lines which capture the terror of alienation as vividly, and when they're delivered by a singer like Dr. Ralph, they seem as old as the Dead Sea Scrolls.