Ralph Stanley By the early 1970s, Ralph’s band changed personnel and he assembled what many consider to be one of the best editions of the Clinch Mountain Boys. Fans often cite Roy Lee Centers as the best of the many lead singers that replaced Carter Stanley. Added to this were young Kentuckians Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs, guitarist Rickey Lee and bass player Jack Cooke. Just as the mid-’50s had been a high-water mark for the Stanley Brothers, such was the case with Ralph in the early 1970s. It was during this period that Ralph’s music experienced a number of changes. While he still kept plenty of driving three-finger style banjo in his performances, his music took a decided shift that reflected the old-time roots of his upbringing. More so than any other mainstream performer, Ralph’s music was a mix of old-time mountain music and bluegrass. One of his most striking innovations was his introduction of a cappella gospel singing to bluegrass. Throughout the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, Ralph enjoyed a steady career on the bluegrass festival circuit, where he was an established headliner. In 1992, he got a career bump with the release of Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, a star-studded twoCD set that paired him with many top country and bluegrass performers including Dwight Yoakam, George Jones, Alison Krauss and Tom T. Hall. The process was repeated in 1998 with the release of Clinch Mountain Country, which featured popular music and cultural icon Bob Dylan.
In January of 2000, Ralph joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry, becoming the show’s first inductee of the 21st century. At year’s end, the audience for his music exploded when his singing appeared as an integral part of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? film soundtrack. His performance of “Oh Death” resulted in his first Grammy award for Best Male Country Vocalist, and gave him top billing as part of the spinoff Down From the Mountain tour. In 2010, O Brother music producer T Bone Burnett featured Ralph on another well-received tour called The Speaking Clock Revue, which also included Elvis Costello and Elton John. Over the years, Stanley amassed a number of awards and honors, including three Grammys, two honorary doctorate of arts degrees, induction into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Fame, a National Medal of Arts award that was presented to him by President George W. Bush, a National Heritage Fellowship, a Living Legend award from the Library of Congress, designation by the Virginia legislature as an Outstanding Virginian, and he was the Virginia Press Association’s choice for Virginian of the Year. Additionally, he had a museum bearing his name and honoring his life in music opened in his hometown of Clintwood, Virginia, and was the promoter of one of the longest-running bluegrass festivals in the world.
In recent years, as arthritis and other health issues hampered his performing abilities, he ceded portions of the show to various band and family members, but he remained at the forefront with his trademark vocals and straightforward MC work. Ralph Stanley possessed a beautiful singing voice that defies description and the perfect complement to it in a unique style of banjo playing, one that will forever be associated with his name. Born of the mountains and seemingly tempered to perfection by the ages contained therein, his was a talent that comes along only once in a very great while. His singing and playing were charged with an intensity and, as Bluegrass Unlimited contributor Walt Saunders has mentioned, an “emotional impact [that] he rarely fails to deliver.” An eminent addition to our nation’s, indeed, the world’s, musical landscape, he will be missed.
Gary Reid is a 40+ year veteran of bluegrass and old-time music. He is currently touring his oneman play A Life of Sorrow - the Life and Times of Carter Stanley.
International Bluegrass
| July 2016
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