Bibliography
See study by J. Wright (1993).
Ralph Stanley
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Ralph Edmond Stanley |
Stanley, Ralph Edmond, 1927-, American bluegrass singer and banjo player, b. Dickenson co., Va. He and his brother, Carter Glen Stanley, 1925-66, were sons of a country-singer father and banjo-playing mother. The Stanley Brothers began playing together professionally in 1942, with Carter singing lead and playing guitar to Ralph's high and hard tenor harmony and skilled banjo picking. In the mid-1940s they formed their own group, the Clinch Mountain Boys. Their style ranged from country to bluegrass, and they wrote some of their own material. In 1947 the Stanleys made their first recordings, and they continued playing and recording together until Carter's death. Ralph subsequently re-formed the Clinch Mountain Boys, and his son, Ralph Stanley 2d, became the group's lead singer in 1995. During his career, Ralph Stanley has recorded more than 150 albums and has become a bluegrass legend. He gained a wider audience when he sang in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).
| Artist: Ralph Stanley |
Similar Artists:
Longview,
The Forbes Family,
Claire Lynch,
Keith Whitley,
Ricky Skaggs,
Osborne Brothers,
Jim & Jesse,
Ralph Stanley II
Influenced By:
Followers:
Cumberland Highlanders,
Blueground Undergrass,
The Bluegrass Alliance,
Mark Newton,
Courtney Johnson,
Keith Whitley,
Larry Sparks,
Doug Paisley,
The Waco Ramblers ,
The Barker Band,
The Grascals,
East Virginia ,
Bluegrass All-Stars
Performed Songs By:
Worked With:
Formal Connection With:
Relationship With:
- Born: February 25, 1927, Stratton, VA
- Active: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Country
- Instrument: Banjo, Vocals
- Representative Albums: "Bound to Ride," "Clinch Mountain Country," "Almost Home"
- Representative Songs: "Going up Home to Live in Gree," "Old Time Pickin'," "Nobody's Love Is Like Mine"
Biography
Born in Stratton, VA, in 1927, Ralph Stanley and his older brother Carter formed the Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys. In 1946 Ralph and Carter were being broadcast from radio station WCYB in Bristol, VA. The music, which was inspired by their Virginia mountain home, was encouraged by their mother, who taught Ralph the clawhammer style of banjo picking that he and Carter became famous for. They recorded for such companies as the small Rich-R-Tone label and later Columbia, a relationship that lasted from 1949 until 1952. These classic sessions defined the Stanleys' own approach to bluegrass and made them as important as Bill Monroe. After leaving Columbia, the Stanleys were with Mercury, Starday, and King. Leaning toward more gospel at times, Carter and Ralph made a place for themselves in the music industry. In December 1966, Carter Stanley died in a Virginia hospital after a steady decline in health. He was just 41 years old. After much consideration and grief, Ralph carried on without Carter. Already their haunting mountain melodies made them stand apart from other bluegrass bands, but Ralph expanded upon this foundation and took his own "high lonesome" vocals to a new plane.Popular at bluegrass festivals, Ralph and each edition of the Clinch Mountain Boys grew to be one of the most respected outfits in bluegrass. As far west as California and even up in the hollers of Kentucky, people were drawn to the poignant, mournful sound of Ralph Stanley's style. Different from all the rest, Ralph's ability to hit the right notes and chords made him a singer of trailblazing proportions. Ralph continued to record for a wide variety of labels, including Jalyn, Rebel, King Bluegrass, Blue Jay, Jessup, Stanleytone, his own label, and Freeland. He was a devoted family man, but Ralph's constant touring took its toll on his first marriage, a union that produced daughters Lisa Joy and Tonya and oldest son Timothy. His second wife, Jimmie, also a singer, gave him another son late in life; Ralph II followed in both his father's and uncle's footsteps and played in the Clinch Mountain Boys with his dad. A Bluegrass Hall of Fame member along with Carter, Ralph Stanley was an inspiration to Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, the late Keith Whitley, and even Monroe acolyte Ricky Skaggs. With his raw emotions and Mother Stanley's three-fingered banjo technique, he helped bring the mountain style of bluegrass music to mainstream audiences. A full survey of the Stanley Brothers' career, including sides they recorded for several different labels, finally appeared in 2007 with Time Life's three-disc Definitive Collection box set. ~ Jana Pendragon, All Music Guide
| Discography: Ralph Stanley |
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| Wikipedia: Ralph Stanley |
| Ralph Stanley | |
|---|---|
 Ralph Stanley performs April 20, 2008
The Granada Theater Dallas, Texas |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ralph Edmond Stanley |
| Also known as | "Dr. Ralph Stanley" |
| Born | February 25, 1927 |
| Origin | Big Spraddle Creek, Virginia, USA |
| Genres | Bluegrass, old-time music |
| Occupations | Bluegrass musician |
| Instruments | Banjo |
| Years active | 1946 – Present |
| Labels | Columbia Records Rebel Records |
| Associated acts | Clinch Mountain Boys Stanley Brothers |
| Members | |
| Dr. Ralph Stanley Jack Cooke James Shelton Steve Sparkman Ralph Stanley II Dewey Brown Nathan Stanley E.C. French |
|
| Former members | |
| Sammy Adkins Junior Blankenship Roy Lee Centers Curly Ray Cline Melvin Goins Rickey Lee James Price Tony "Renfro" Profitt John Rigsby George Shuffler Charlie Sizemore Larry Sparks Ricky Skaggs Keith Whitley |
|
| Notable instruments | |
| Banjo | |
Ralph Stanley (born February 25, 1927), also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley, is an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing.
Contents |
Biography
Ralph Edmond Stanley was born, grew up, and lives today in rural southwestern Virginia—"in a little town called McClure at a place called Big Spraddle, just up the holler" from where he moved in 1936 and has lived ever since in Dickenson County.[1] The son of Lee and Lucy Stanley, Ralph did not grow up around a lot of music in his home. As he says, his "daddy didn't play an instrument, but sometimes he would sing church music. And I'd hear him sing songs like 'Man of Constant Sorrow,' 'Pretty Polly' and 'Omie Wise.'"[1]
"I got my first banjo when I was a teenager. I guess I was 15, 16 years old. My aunt had this old banjo, and Mother bought it for me . . . paid $5 for it, which back then was probably like $5,000. (My parents) had a little store, and I remember my aunt took it out in groceries."[1]
He learned to play the banjo, claw-hammer style, from his mother:
"She had 11 brothers and sisters, and all of them could play the five-string banjo. She played gatherings around the neighborhood, like bean stringin's. She tuned it up for me and played this tune, 'Shout Little Luly,' and I tried to play it like she did. But I think I developed my own style of the banjo."[1]
He graduated from high school May 2, 1945 and was inducted into the Army on May 16, serving "little more than a year." He immediately began performing when he got home:
". . . my daddy and Carter picked me up from the (station), and Carter was playing with another group, Roy Sykes and the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys, and they had a personal appearance that night. So I sung a song with Carter on the radio before I even got home."[2]
Clinch Mountain Boys
After initially considering a course in "veterinary," he decided to throw in with his older guitar-playing brother, Carter, and form the Clinch Mountain Boys, in 1946. Drawing heavily on the musical traditions of the area, which included the unique minor-key singing style of the Primitive Baptist Universalist church and the sweet down-home family harmonies of the Carter Family, the Stanleys began playing on local radio stations. They first performed at Norton, Virginia's WNVA, but didn't stay long there, moving on instead to Bristol, Virginia and WCYB to start the show Farm and Fun Time where they stayed "off and on for 12 years."[2]
Initially covering "a lot of Bill Monroe music", they soon "found out that didn't pay off—we needed something of our own. So we started writing songs in 1947, 1948. I guess I wrote 20 or so banjo tunes, but Carter was a better writer than me."[2] When Columbia Records signed the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe left in protest and joined Decca. Later, the Stanleys split up and Carter went to sing for the "Father of Bluegrass." Asked how Monroe could be mad at the Stanley Brothers at one point and then hire Carter for his band, Ralph explained: "He knew Carter would make him a good singer. . . Bill Monroe loved our music and loved our singing."[2]
The Stanley Brothers joined King Records in the late '50s, a record company so eclectic it included James Brown at the time. In fact he and his band were in the studio when the brothers recorded "Finger Poppin' Time." "James and his band were poppin' their fingers on that" according to Ralph.[2] It was at King Records that they "went to a more 'Stanley style,' the sound that people most know today."[2]
Ralph and Carter performed as The Stanley Brothers with their band, the Clinch Mountain Boys from 1946 to 1966.
Solo
After Carter died of liver cancer in 1966, after failing for "a year or so,"[2] Ralph faced a hard decision on whether to continue performing on his own. "I was worried, I didn't know if I could do it by myself. But boy, I got letters, 3,000 of 'em, and phone calls . . . I went to Syd Nathan at King and asked him if he wanted me to go on, and he said, 'Hell yes! You might be better than both of them.'"[3]
He decided to go it alone, eventually reviving the Clinch Mountain Boys. Larry Sparks, Roy Lee Centers, and Charlie Sizemore were among those with whom he played in the revived band. He encountered Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley arriving late to his own show: "They were about 16 or 17, and they were holding the crowd 'til we got there. . . They sounded just exactly like (the Stanley Brothers)."[4] Seeing their potential, he hired them "to give 'em a chance", even though that meant a seven-member band.[2] Eventually, his son Ralph Stanley II, took over as lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the Clinch Mountain Boys.[5]
Political career
Around 1970, he ran for Clerk of Court and Commissioner of Revenue in Dickenson County only to be used:
"What happened is, somebody traded me off--they used my popularity and money to elect somebody else. I was done dirty. And I'm so proud that I was done dirty, because if I had been elected . . . I woulda had a job to do . . . maybe woulda finally quit (music). So that's one time I was done dirty and I want to thank them for it now."[4]
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Stanley's work was featured in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which he sings the Appalachian dirge "O Death." The soundtrack's producer was T-Bone Burnett. Stanley said the following about working with Burnett:
"T-Bone Burnett had several auditions for that song. He wanted it in the Dock Boggs style. So I got my banjo and learned it the way he did it. You see, I had recorded 'O Death' three times, done it with Carter. So I went down with my banjo to Nashville and I said, 'T-Bone, let me sing it the way I want to sing it,' and I laid my banjo down and sung it a cappella. After two or three verses, he stopped me and said, 'That's it.'"[4]
With that song, Stanley won a 2002 Grammy Award in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance. "That put the icing on the cake for me," he says. "It put me in a different category."[4]
Today
Known in the world of bluegrass music by the popular title, "Dr. Ralph Stanley" (after being awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee in 1976), Stanley was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1992 and in 2000, and became the first person to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in the third millennium.
He joined producers Randall Franks and Alan Autry for the In the Heat of the Night (TV Series) cast CD “Christmas Time’s A Comin’” performing "Christmas Time's A Comin'" with the cast on the CD released on Sonlite and MGM/UA for one of the most popular Christmas releases of 1991 and 1992 with Southern retailers.
He is featured in the Josh Turner hit song "Me and God," released in 2006.
In 2006 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. On November 10, 2007, Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at a rally for presidential candidate John Edwards in Des Moines, Iowa, just prior to the Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. Between renditions of "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "Orange Blossom Special," Stanley told the crowd that he had cast his first vote for Harry S. Truman in 1948 and would cast his next for John Edwards in 2008—but after Edwards fell by the wayside, Stanley endorsed Barack Obama on September 9, 2008.[6] In October 2008, the Obama campaign aired a radio ad in Virginia featuring Stanley.[7]
Stanley maintains an extensive touring schedule.
Stanley's autobiography, Man of Constant Sorrow, coauthored with Eddie Dean, is expected for release from Gotham Books on October 15, 2009.
Musical style
Ralph created a unique style of banjo playing, sometimes called "Stanley Style". It evolved from Scruggs style, which is a three finger technique. "Stanley style" is distinguished by incredibly fast "forward rolls," led by the index finger, sometimes in the higher registers utilizing a capo.
Selected discography
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | Label | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Bluegrass | US Country | US | US Heat | |||
| 2001 | Clinch Mountain Gospel | Rebel | ||||
| 2002 | Ralph Stanley | 3 | 22 | 163 | 5 | DMZ |
| 2003 | Poor Rambler | King | ||||
| 2005 | Shine On | 6 | Rebel | |||
| 2006 | A Distant Land to Roam | 4 | ||||
| 2007 | Mountain Preacher's Child | 9 | ||||
Other contributions
- Lifted: Songs of the Spirit (2002, Sony/Hear Music) - "Listen to the Shepherd"
Honors, awards, distinctions
- He's known in the world of bluegrass music by the popular title, "Dr. Ralph Stanley" after being awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, in 1976.
- He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1992 and in 2000.
- He became the first person to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in the third millennium.
- His work was featured in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which he sings the Appalachian dirge "O Death."
- That song won him a 2002 Grammy Award in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
- The Virginia Press Association made him their Distinguished Virginian of the Year in 2004.
- The Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center opened in Clintwood, Virginia in 2004.
- He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2006, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.
- The Virginia legislature designated him the Outstanding Virginian of 2008.
- He was awarded the Key to the City of Garner, North Carolina on November 15, 2008
See also
- The Stanley Brothers
- George Shuffler
- Dickenson County, Virginia
- Bluegrass music
- Old-time music
- Banjo
- International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
- Grand Ole Opry
- O Brother, Where Art Thou?
- Grammy Awards
- National Medal of Arts
References
- http://www.morrispr.biz/releases/nr156.htm
- "Old-Time Man" interview June 2008 Virginia Living pp 55–57.
- Stanley, Ralph (2009). Man of Constant Sorrow. New York: Gotham Books. ISBN 978-1-592-40425-4. http://www.amazon.com/Man-Constant-Sorrow-Life-Times/dp/1592404251/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qisbn=1224098250&sr=1-2.
Notes
- ^ a b c d "Old-Time Man" interview by Don Harrison June 2008 Virginia Living, p. 55.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Old-Time Man" interview by Don Harrison June 2008 Virginia Living, p. 56.
- ^ "Old-Time Man" interview by Don Harrison June 2008 Virginia Living, p. 56-7.
- ^ a b c d "Old-Time Man" interview by Don Harrison June 2008 Virginia Living, p. 57.
- ^ http://www.ralphstanleyii.com/history.html
- ^ Washington Post, September 9, 2008
- ^ Bluegrass Legend Cuts Radio Ad for Obama in Va. Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2008. Retrieved on October 4, 2008.
External links
- http://www.slipcue.com/music/country/countryartists/stanley.html
- http://www.drralphstanley.com/index.shtml
- Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center
- Ralph Stanley Interview
- Allmusic with audio
- A capella performance of 'Me and God'
- http://www.ralphstanley.net/
- Ralph Stanley plays the Tiny Desk for NPR Music
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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Mentioned in
- Cryin' Holy Unto the Lord (1991 Album by Bill Monroe)
- Back to the Cross (1992 Album by Ralph Stanley)
- High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass (1994 Album by Original Soundtrack)
- Half Moon Bay (2004 Album by James Alan Shelton)
- Blue Ridge Mountain Holiday (1996 Album by Various Artists)
- The Banjo of Ralph Stanley: From Old-Time to Bluegrass (Music Film)
- 1971-1973 (1995 Album by Ralph Stanley)
- High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass [Bonus Tracks] (2003 Album by Various Artists)
- I'll Answer the Call (1987 Album by Ralph Stanley)
- I Feel Like Singing Today (1999 Album by Jim Lauderdale & Ralph Stanley)
- Pretty Girls, City Lights (2000 Album by Ralph Stanley II)
- Man of Constant Sorrow (2001 Album by Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys)
- The Story Is... The Songs of Tom T. Hall (2002 Album by Charlie Sizemore)
- Old-Time Pickin': A Clawhammer Banjo Collection (2008 Album by Ralph Stanley)
