With A Mother’s Prayer, Stanley performs 14 spiritual songs. It’s more than a little ironic to hear Stanley perform this album’s title track. After all, if Stanley’s loving mother were really still alive today to hear him sing it, she’d have to be pushing at least 150 by now! Seriously, however, this song’s lyric offers up a sad commentary on the spirituality ratio between men and women. For instance, you almost never hear about praying fathers; it’s always the womenfolk that wear out their kneecaps. “A mother’s prayer, more precious than gold,” Stanley tells us as he thanks God for “the power of a mother’s prayer.” Perhaps men don’t pray as much because they’re just too busy sinning.
His band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, backs Stanley confidently throughout. They sound particularly good on the old gospel tune, “Are You Washed in the Blood,” which features plenty of Stanley banjo. Stanley also sings without any instrumentation on “Prince of Peace.” Although it’s not as tragic as his version of “O Death,” made famous by the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, it is nonetheless a gripping piece of stripped down music. Blind Willie Johnson’s “John The Revelator” is another vocal only Stanley showcase. With its quiet acoustic guitar, Stanley’s version of “Lift Him Up, That’s All” is nearly as powerful as “Prince Of Piece.” The lyrics are a little awkward on this song, which actually helps its cause. Instead of sounding like a smooth country song, the cluttered nature of its words makes it come off as if Stanley is preaching a musical sermon.
Speaking of sermons, Stanley turns into an evangelist with “He Suffered For My Reward.” “His name is Jesus Christ, my friends,” Stanley sings, as though he’s giving an altar call at the end of the service. This track also takes a minimalist approach to its instrumentation. There’s banjo, of course, as well as fiddle, but little else other than acoustic guitar and quiet harmonies fill it out.
After all the seriousness of this album, the finisher “What Kind Of Man” is a refreshing way to close the CD. It’s an upbeat, toe-tapping praise song. Its lyric talks about the truly wonderful and unique man Jesus is. Unlike the simple arrangements that mostly precede it, this track features plenty of instrumental interplay among the Clinch Mountain Boys, including a lot of fast-fingered soloing.
At the risk of being sacrilegious, one might also ask what kind of man that Ralph Stanley is. After all, he just soldiers on and continues to record great music with age as no object. It’s hard to argue with his gospel message either -- especially since he’s lived such a long and successful life. What a man Ralph Stanley is, indeed!
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