August 2014
While It Still Has Meaning
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
So often, we as a society fail to rec-
ognize greatness until it has passed us by. It is at that point we find ourselves grieving our loss and our failure to honor that greatness when it was among us. Fortunately, failure to recognize greatness is not the case when one ponders the life and times of Americana string music’s living legend, Ralph Stanley. In past issues of this magazine, we have, with much pleasure, written sto-
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By Edward Tutwiler
Recognizing Dr. Ralph Stanley ries about Ralph Stanley. Our first effort told the story of Ralph’s brother, Carter, whose death in 1966 ended one of the most famous string-music acts from the early days of, in Ralph Stanley’s words, “That music they call bluegrass”. That story ended with a despondent Ralph Stanley trying to pick up the pieces of the heart-tearing loss of his older brother (the singer/songwriter anchor of their successful brother act they formed in 1946); and finding the courage to soldier on into eventual greatness as the leader of
Photo credit: Michael Marsland
his own band. In a later issue, Ralph Stanley was the cover artist and the subject of the centerfold article as he, in his early eighties,
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pondered retirement from the performing stage after achieving universal accolades.