Grammy-winning Stanley Talks About Tradition, Mar-06-2002
written by Janie Franz

It was a small bluegrass festival in the heart of Kentucky in early spring. A crowd of older folks had gathered under a canopy to try to keep a little cooler under the growing heat of the day. Some of us, who were well slathered with sunscreen and covered with hats, sprawled in our portable chairs a might closer to the stage. I was there to introduce my grown daughter and my future daughter-in-law to their mountain roots. I wanted them both to see a living legend in the flesh. That was when bluegrass pioneer Dr. Ralph Stanley took the stage.

was struck by how slight a man he was and how he had aged. He was 74 after all. I marveled at how small a living legend was. And legend Ralph Stanley surely is. You didn't have to be bigger than life to influence so many musicians nor creep into the hearts of so many fans.

I grew up listening to Stanley Brothers records, Ralph and his brother Carter. That was back when music wasn't so portable and you had to sit in front of the record player and feed it vinyl after vinyl. I had been enthralled by the gospel songs they did, and especially Ralph Stanley's high plaintive country tenor. It was the pure mournfulness of some of those tunes, paired with the high energy of others, that tore at something deep inside me. It was no wonder then that the Cohen Brothers wanted to showcase that sound in the soundtrack for their film, "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" Both Ralph Stanley's chilling "O, Death" and the Stanley Brothers "Angel Band" had prominent spots on the CD. And the very song that the Stanley Brothers had brought to the public ear years ago was the recurring theme of the film, the haunting, "Man of Constant Sorrow."

When I sat down with Ralph Stanley in his air conditioned tour bus later that day, I wanted to explore those gospel roots. I assumed that he had learned to play gospel music in church and that that was where the gospel fire I sensed in his music had come from. I asked him if he had played in church with his family. "Oh, no," he said, "we don't use music in the church that I go to. I go to the old, primitive Baptist. They don't believe in music in the church." But they do sing. And that was where that versatile, vocal instrument was trained. Without musical accompaniment, mountain voices, like those of Irish singers, often created cadences and embellishments that sometimes felt too constrained by the limitations of structured time and rhythms. With that early free singing experience, Ralph Stanley's voice lent itself well into the old time format that he and his brother Carter later developed when they were young men.

For nearly six decades Ralph Stanley has been on the road, playing one-night stands, festivals, and radio shows. He is the only one of the founding fathers of bluegrass music who still keeps an active touring schedule. "I play festivals that begin around the first of May and then we play as long as they last," Ralph Stanley said. "I think Thanksgiving weekend is about the last one we play. Then we play one the first week of January down in Georgia where it's warm. We play some festivals like that, and we play some concerts." Those festivals include Ralph Stanley's own at the end of May, The Memorial Bluegrass Festival, which celebrated its 31st year in 2001. "It's at the old home place where I was born and raised, near Coeburn Virginia, down in the Southwest part of Virginia [in the Appalachian Mountains] about 40 miles from the Pike County, Kentucky line."

I asked him what keeps him going. "I guess I am one of the oldest who tours regular. I've been blessed. I've had good health. I give all that credit to the good Lord."

He has recorded over 150 albums, including the International Bluegrass Music Association's Album of the Year for 2000, "Clinch Mountain Country." That album featured Ralph Stanley singing duets with Bob Dylan and Nashville notables like Dwight Yoakam, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, and Porter Wagoner. Yet, recognition and fame have come only within the last ten years or so. He and his brother Carter (who died in 1966) were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association's Hall of Honor in 1992. Ralph Stanley was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Lincoln Memorial University for his contribution to bluegrass and country music. But the coveted membership in the Grand Ole Opry eluded him until 2000, just before his 73rd birthday. Finally, in 2002, Ralph Stanley won a Grammy for Country Male Vocalist of the Year for his version of "O, Death" on the "O, Brother" soundtrack.

Though the young ladies I brought to this festival had the youngest pairs of ears in the afternoon crowd, that changed later in the day when the sun went down. The tie-dye and toe-ring crowd brought their blankets and sat down to tap their feet to this old-timey music that was becoming new again all over.

The phenomenal success of the "O, Brother" soundtrack, which went platinum a few weeks after it was released and sold three million copies, garnered music contributors the Country Music Association's coveted Album of the Year award in 2001, beating out favorite country performers like Tim McGraw. That popular success is allowing Dr. Ralph to finally experience more of the recognition that has eluded him. It is also inspiring a whole new crop of fans, including some he didn't think would listen, much less create their own forms of the bluegrass genre. "We've been getting a lot of young people coming in who say they never saw us before," Stanley says. "A lot of people never had heard of us. It's a new audience. I don't know whether they understand me or not, but I guess they know what they like when they hear it. Because a lot of people who never heard old-time music swear they don't like it; but when they hear it, they like it."

I asked Ralph Stanley if he felt that there were new musicians, younger players like those in his band, following behind him in bluegrass music. He said, "There are a lot of new ones who are doing it, but there's very few who are doing the real old-time, traditional music like I do. My son, Ralph Stanley II, sings lead for me and he sing the old time music. He's a good country singer, too."

The makeup of Ralph Stanley's touring band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, is half veterans and half young players. Steve Sparkman, who joined the band in 1994 as relief banjo player when Dr. Ralph had been injured, is 30 years old. Ralph Stanley II who also plays guitar is 23. The youngest member is John Rigsby who plays mandolin and fiddle and sings backup. He's just 20. These young men play along side of three, more mature, very experienced players: Jack Cooke on upright bass (baritone and tenor vocals), James Shelton on lead guitar, and James Price on fiddle (bass vocals).

"It's hard for young people. I think you really have to live this to know what you're singing about," Ralph Stanley said. "This kind of music is just born in you. I don't think you can learn it right. It's just born in you. All you gotta do is let it out."

Because of him and his brother Carter, young groups are pumping out fresh (or bastardized, depending on whether you are a purist or not) bluegrass music in newly defined subgenres that make newgrass a traditional form. New subgenres have appeared like slamgrass, jamgrass, punkgrass, bluegrazz, and even what fiddle legend Vassar Clemments calls hillbilly jazz.

Ralph Stanley is a bluegrass, old-time purist who has never heard of some of these genres, much less any of the bands prominent in them. He got a little glassy-eyed when I started throwing out names like Leftover Salmon, Smokin' Grass, and the Recipe. I didn't dare spring Blueground Undergrass or Railroad Earth on him. But one thing he insisted on and I believe is true having seen the grass genres sprout up everywhere, "A lot of young people are going back and getting the old songs."

Vince Herman, guitarist with slamgrass band, Leftover Salmon, is in awe of the founding fathers of bluegrass. "The first generation players really defined how the music works, how the instruments worked. They were incredible innovators." Even though today's newest grass genres have had the reputation of being improvisors who have introduced a variety of musical styles to the grass movement, Herman feels that players like Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe "brought together many musical influences of their day to create a brand new musical form."

In a sense, they were the original bluegrass jammers of their time, says Adam Frehm, dobro player from Smokin' Grass. Young players all start with the greats, he says. "Young mandolin players start with Bill Monroe who wrote bluegrass to fit mandolins. After the flashy licks, these players look for the classic stuff." As for Ralph Stanley, Frehm says, "He shows us his work ethic, his dedication, and his commitment, through his continued touring. He's one of the hardest working performers out there."

Tim Carbone, fiddle player with the band Railroad Earth, says most of the members of his band discovered Ralph Stanley through other musicians who had been influenced by Ralph Stanley and other pioneer players. As a teenager, Carbone himself had seen Ralph Stanley in festivals in Nebraska where he grew up. "Ralph's voice had the sound of the woes of the world," he says. "It was a physical experience to hear him. His voice and his approach to his singing really showed the influence of early blues." Bill Monroe, he says, was also listening to that, too. "Bluegrass started with improvisation, with single line solos on the mandolin, for instance, that voiced the melody of the tune," Carbone says.

Hannah Ross, the fiddle player with the Recipe, can't help but praise the influences of early innovators like Ralph Stanley. She, like many other young players, cut her teeth on old time and bluegrass music. Though she eventually studied classical violin and reached into pop, rock, and jazz, she came back to the innovation of bluegrass playing when she stretched her musical wings, playing alongside first generation player Vassar Clemments who toured with the Recipe.

It is clear, as Time Carbone says, "The jamband/jamgrass genre owes a huge debt to bluegrass and blues." And to one of its most hardworking founding fathers, Ralph Stanley.

My daughter and my future daughter-in-law came away from that little festival richer for the gift of music Ralph Stanley continues to spread all across this country. If Dr. Ralph is ever in your neck of the woods, amble on over to the festival or concert and catch that roots bluegrass that only Ralph Stanley can produce.

article taken from iBluegrass.com.