121 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
RICH R TONE recording company is history. Since Jim’s death in 1989, he worked until his last day, Counterfeiters’ and some show business leeches have attempted to plagiarize the music and the label.
However Jim’s productions and the history remain untarnished. Famous for the Stanley Brothers first recordings, the label produced more talented and genuine artists that are not famous. Until you hear them, you do not know how good they were.
Here it is attempted to reconstruct through actual documentation and memory the story of the Real Rich R Tone and Jim’s attitude toward the business and his genuine belief in the spirit of the good records recorded on the label. Not all of his releases are good. Most are. Also to provide a contrast between the normal crazy world of post world war 2 and the total insanity of the world we wake up to everyday today.
A man of faith until the end, he endured some health setbacks and financial setbacks as we all do. Nashville and country music was changing and evidenced by what is the state of the industry today, Jim was right when he said: “When New York “money” gets ahold of Nashville, they will ruin it.” I believe he was right.
Of Course you can say the country of today is talent evolved and is patriotic, but if you don’t live it you can’t sing it, same thing with the black blues/soul singers, there aren’t any genuine ones left. Money doesn’t produce heart and soul. Hard times do. Music should be heart and soul; Of course you be the judge. Ken Burns excellent country music documentary stopped at a certain point in Nashville’s metamorphosis. That was about right.
“The good ole days weren’t so good”, he would say, “These are the good old days”.
THE RENFRO VALLEY BOYS
RICH-R-TONE is a record label started by Jim Stanton in 1946 in East Tennessee. Jim was a guitar player/ songwriter himself. He had a good ear and soon found talent from the area and began to release 78 records and make a name for the company and himself. The label has been called tiny by some, usually critics and record dealers. The label was certainly not big but it is significant. I saw maybe 25 labels that I knew of come and go in Nashville when I lived there and usually never even got off the ground. Jim remained friends with most of the artists long after their 78 days and some recorded again with him at his Nashville studio in the 1970’s and 1980’s: Jimmie Skinner, Frank Hunter, etal. released their final records on RICH-R-TONE.
1919-1989
Honored posthumously at ETSU
Rich-R-Tone Recordings in the Lewis Deneumoustier Collection ยท Archives of Appalachia (omeka.net)
A skeletal discopgraphy of Rich-R-Tone releases. There were about 125-130 78’s released between 1946 and 1952. After that the company hibernated until the 1960’s when some more bluegrass and white gospel records were release on Rich R Tone and the Skyland records label on the new vinyl formats. Jim stayed in Johnson City through 1973 and then relocated to Columbia S.C. to engineer and produce for United Music World until 1976, when he moved to Nashville permanently until his death in July 1989. At his Champ Studio there he produced mostly black gospel records for his Champ label and some of those recordings have become collectors items due to their quality and scarcity.
Rich-R-Tone Label | Releases | Discogs
63 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him