Ralph always backed away from the “bluegrass” label, however, choosing to associate his highly personalised style with a more venerable type of music. Stanley often called what he did “old-time music”.
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Ralph died at his home due to difficulties with skin cancer, publicist Kirt Webster confirmed.
Among his countless accomplishments, the Appalachian music patriarch was featured on the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers’ film, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” singing a chilling a cappella folk version of “O Death”.
After Carter died in December 1966, Stanley continued performing with the Clinch Mountain Boys as a solo artist. Their mother, Lucy Ann Smith, would play on the banjo, while Lee Stanley sang classic songs to the boys like “Man of Constant Sorrow”.
(The band was forced to briefly disband in the early “50s, with the brothers taking jobs together at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit.) Carter provided vocals and guitar, while Ralph lent his expert banjo technique (still known in some places as “Stanley style”) and high tenor voice to the band’s numerous albums and radio performances”. Carter’s romantic songwriting professed a deep passion for the rural landscape, but also reflected on lonesomeness and personal losses.
Their hits included White Dove and The Lonesome River/I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow, the traditional song which they popularised in 1951.
“Ralph Stanley was elemental”. Stanley said, then, that his audience eventually lost the young crowd to country music, Elvis Presley and his rockabilly brand of rock and roll.
The brothers began playing big folk and bluegrass festivals, finding fame and fans along the way. His brother had been the main songwriter, lead singer, and frontman.
He told Fresh Air he was surprised by the reaction, but also gratified with the letters from people who said “that sound caused them to change their life, and I… believe that gift was given to me for that objective”.
The banjo case was in the “entourage” of Dr. Ralph Stanley, who was being wheeled through the airport by his Clinch Mountain Boys en route to his latest gig.
He carried the ancient sounds from God knows where, said Skaggs, who started playing with Stanley as a teenager. Later that year, Jimmie Rodgers and fellow Clinch Mountains musicians A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter would record their first sessions in nearby Bristol, which claims the title “Birthplace of Country Music”, straddling the Virginia/Tennessee state line.
“That’s my religion, ” Dylan said of the Stanley Brothers” music in a “96 interview.
In 1976, Stanley was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee – hence his usual “Dr.” prefix.
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At the time of his death, he was the oldest living member of the Grand Ole Opry, which said Thursday night that “his music will live on forever”.
