Bluegrass hall of famer Ralph Stanley died Thursday night after a long bout with skin cancer, his grandson confirmed in a Facebook post. And though Ralph Stanley just died at the age of 89, he will live on forever through his over 150 albums, and his influence on countless musicians.
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Almost 70 years from start to finish, it began with a bang in late 1946, when his guitar-playing big brother Carter picked him up at the Abingdon, Va., train station – the younger Stanley had mustered out of the Army after serving in occupied Germany – and took him straight onto a stage with a band Carter was already in.
Their songs included “The Lonesome River” and “White Dove”, which describes the mourning after the death of a mother and father. “I started out the way I was raised, in the old-time mountain style”, Stanley, who always preferred the phrase “mountain music” to “bluegrass”, said in 2009. Additionally, he was awarded the coveted “Living Legends” award by The National Endowment for the Arts and President George W. Bush.
Asheville native Steve Johnson, director of artist relations at MerleFest, says the Stanley Brothers were tremendous innovators but remained true to their sound and feels Ralph Stanley exposed a new generation of listeners to bluegrass with his contributions to the movie and soundtrack “O Brother Where Art Thou”. The film brought Stanley and his music legions of new, younger fans and reinvigorated Stanley’s touring with the Clinch Mountain Boys in the last decade-plus of his career. The song won a Grammy in 2002 for best male country vocal performance and afforded Stanley more mainstream exposure than he had ever had.
“He’s made a tremendous thing for Clintwood and Dickenson County because a lot of people have visited this area that would have never been here without the name Dr. Stanley”, Clintwood Mayor Donald Baker said. Musicians such as fellow soundtrack contributors Harris and Krauss kept the mountain tradition before a national audience, while former proteges Ricky Skaggs and the late Keith Whitley, both one-time Clinch Mountain Boys, became bona fide country hitmakers. As recently as February, he and his band were nominated for a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for “Man of Constant Sorrow”. “I am still enjoying it, but I would have had longer to enjoy it”. Ralph Stanley did something rare for any tenor harmony singer, for the “other one” anywhere in show business: He chose to step up-leading the Clinch Mountain Boys band forward, finding a succession of lead singers to work with, and emphasizing the old-time-sounding numbers he sang so well himself, and his banjo playing all the more. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. I just can not get a grip on this.
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Stanley is survived by his wife Jimmie Stanley and his children Lisa Stanley Marshall, Tonya Armes Stanley and Ralph Stanley II. To report spam or abuse, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box.
