First off, I cannot recommend this box set enough. If you are fanatical about bluegrass and old-time music, you must have this in your library. It includes sets by The Stanley Brothers, The New Lost City Ramblers, Cousin Emmy, and Roscoe Holcomb, among others, from a package tour they did in Germany.

That said, let me focus on one song in particular.

They didn’t have the language for it back then, but this is as clear an example of sex addiction or love addiction as you could hope to find. “I’m a three-time loser,” Carter Stanley sings, so you know he’s been here before, for the exact same reason: “All for the love of another man’s wife”, regardless of the consequences.

Carter Stanley knew a little something about addiction; he was an alcoholic for most of his touring life. This show was recorded in the spring of 1966; Carter Stanley would die on December 1 of that year.

At this point, he just sounds plumb wore out, and his profound weariness suits the song to sad perfection.

This is The Stanley Brothers with “Stone Walls and Steel Bars”.