Lilly Brothers & Don Stover – What Will I Leave Behind
In bluegrass years, 1973 was a long time ago. It is also something of a midpoint in the current history of bluegrass music. Since Bill Monroe’s debut on the Grand Ole Opry in 1939, the Osborne Brothers had plugged in, New Grass Revival had rocked out, and a group of former Blue Grass Boys had recorded an album of Monroe tunes with drums and a Telecaster.
And in 1973, County Records released the only all-gospel album from the Lilly Brothers. Contemporaries of the Stanley Brothers and Flatt & Scruggs, the Lillys managed to have a lengthy and successful career without becoming a household name. Perhaps because most discussions of bluegrass geography tend to focus on a region east of the Mississippi and south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the Lilly Brothers’ long-standing engagement at Boston’s Hillbilly Ranch put them somewhat out of the mainstream. Still, these West Virginia natives — along with banjo stalwart Don Stover — carried bluegrass music to a hungry New England audience throughout the 1950s and ’60s.
While the setting for most of their music-making was decidedly urban, the Lilly Brothers’ sound was country to the core. Their vocal harmonies call to mind the Delmore Brothers or the Blue Sky Boys. Everett Lilly floats a light, airy tenor over his own staccato mandolin playing. Bea Lilly sings a strong lead and plays rhythm guitar with a thumb pick, a la Lester Flatt. Stover, a sorely underappreciated banjo player, lights into his instrument with mountain-style drive.
The songs are a fairly even mix of slow numbers about death and fast ones about going to heaven. (Notions of temptation, sin and judgment are treated with a more moderate tempo.) Even the death songs suggest the possibility of going to heaven later on, and the titles — “In A Little Village Churchyard”, “On My Way To Glory”, “The Dying Boy’s Prayer”, “The Great Reaping Day” — reflect such traditional themes. These songs are old, but not worn. Even now, three decades later, none has become a “standard” gospel number.
Though Stover died in 1996, the Lilly Brothers are still touring and performing. After several years of regular appearances during the IBMA World of Bluegrass week, they were recently — and deservedly — inducted into the IBMA Hall of Honor.