Stanley marks recording anniversary with two CDs

In honor of this occasion, Rebel will offer two more Stanley releases as part of a label effort to reissue classic Rebel albums for digital download: "Something Old, Something New" and "I'll Wear a White Robe" will be available at major digital stores including iTunes and Amazon MP3 on Feb. 22.

Among the tracks Stanley recorded during that February 1971 Rebel session included several that would make it on to "Something Old, Something New." "Something Old" was his second to be released on the Rebel label and the first that included secular material. The disc offers a cross section of music: straight hard-driving bluegrass numbers like Going to Georgia and Katy Daley, slower-paced songs with harmonies like Will You Miss Me and That Lonesome Old Song, old-time instrumental pieces such as the clawhammer banjo-driven Old Time Pickin', and several sacred numbers including a haunting rendition of Gloryland sung a cappella in quartet formation.

The band features The Clinch Mountain Boys in their classic early 1970s lineup with Jack Cooke on bass, Curly Ray Cline on fiddle, Roy Lee Centers on rhythm guitar, Stanley on banjo and the band's then-newest members - Keith Whitley on lead guitar and Ricky Skaggs on mandolin and fiddle. Lead singing duties are split between Centers and Stanley on "Something Old, Something New."

Released in 1980, "I'll Wear a White Robe" was the first album Stanley cut for Rebel after label direction changed hands from Dick Freeland to current owner Dave Freeman. This was the first Stanley gospel album to feature the young new lead singer Charlie Sizemore. The CD includes Mountain Preacher's Child, Walking Up This Hill on Decoration Day and I'll Wear a White Robe. In addition to Stanley and Sizemore, the band's lineup features Junior Blankenship on lead guitar as well as Clinch Mountain mainstays Cline on fiddle and Cooke on bass.