Ralph Stanley Biography
Now 81 years old, Stanley has been performing professionally since he and his older brother, Carter, formed a band in their native southwestern Virginia in 1946. Between that date and 1966, when Carter died, the Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys became one of the most celebrated bluegrass groups in the world, rivaling in popularity such titans as Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs. After Carter’s death, Stanley shifted the band’s musical emphasis from hard-driving bluegrass to an older, sadder, less adorned mountain style. As a bandleader, he nourished such young and promising talents as Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Larry Sparks and Charlie Sizemore, all of whom eventually graduated to distinguished solo careers. While he has long been revered by enthusiasts of folk, bluegrass and country music, Stanley has lately been commanding the kind of honors due a musical original. In 2003, he shared with his friend Jim Lauderdale a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. The year before that, he won Grammys for Best Country Male Vocalist Performance (beating out Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, Lyle Lovett and Ryan Adams) and Album of the Year (for his part in the O Brother, Where Art Thou? collection). In 2001, he was the subject of an admiring profile in the New Yorker, written by novelist David Gates, who traveled with Stanley for months gathering material. He is the central figure in the D. A. Pennebaker/Chris Hegedus 2000 documentary, Down From The Mountain.
The Virginia Press Association named Stanley “Virginian Of The Year” in March, 2004, an honor that placed him in the company of novelist William Styron, Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham and fellow musicians June Carter Cash and Bruce Hornsby. And most recently, he was selected by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia as the 2008 Outstanding Virginian. “Well, it’s true these awards have been coming pretty fast,” says the reticent, plainspoken Stanley, “but I enjoy every one of them.” Of his Best Country Male Vocalist Grammy, he notes, “I was a little surprised, but that was the one I really hoped to win. It just felt so good I can’t hardly tell you.” He acknowledges that there are few major recognitions he still aspires to but adds, “Well, there is the Country Music Hall of Fame. I’d like that to happen some day.” So respected is Stanley as a musical stylist that dozens of other major artists have recorded duets with him, among them Bob Dylan, George Jones, Vince Gill, Randy Owen, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Joan Baez, Pam Tillis and Porter Wagoner. And requests to record keep coming in. In working with Stanley on the soundtrack of O Brother, producer T Bone Burnett was so taken by his sound that he signed him as the flagship artist of his new label, DMZ/Columbia. In 2002, Burnett produced the critically acclaimed album Ralph Stanley, a collection of ancient and old-time songs from England and Appalachia. The album immediately leaped into Billboard’s bestseller list and stayed there for weeks. And in 2006, Sony/Columbia released his album A Distant Land to Roam, a tribute to the Carter family. Ralph Stanley still lives near the spot where he was born in a mountainous, tucked-away corner near the rugged Virginia-Tennessee border. It remains his cherished retreat from the rigors of the road and the 150 plus shows he continues to do each year. Contact: Career HighlightsBorn February 25, 1927 in Dickenson County, Virginia; lives in Coeburn, Virginia Honors and Acknowledgements
2005 - Proclamation from Virginia Governor Mark Warner presented to Dr. Ralph Stanley, a native Virginian, in honor of his life and work as a pioneering traditional country music artist. Noteworthy Appearances
~CBS Grammy Awards Show performance Musical Accomplishments
~ Has performed continually since 1946. The patriarch of traditional and bluegrass music still does over 150 dates a year. |
Ralph Stanley’s voice is not of this century. Nor of the last one, for that matter. Its stark emotional urgency is rooted in a darker time, when pain was the common coin of life and the world offered sinful humanity no hope of refuge. Preserved in the cultural amber of remote Appalachia, this terse, forlorn sound is the bedrock of Stanley’s inimitable style. But don’t mistake an ancient voice for ancient ways. Stanley tours and performs with the vigor and elan of a rock star.
In January, 2000, Stanley became the first artist of the new millennium to be inducted into the historic Grand Ole Opry. He holds the Living Legend award from the Library of Congress and was the first recipient of the Traditional American Music award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. One of his proudest achievements is the honorary doctorate in music Lincoln Memorial University conferred on him in 1976. In addition to all these honors, Stanley was chosen to be the closing act for the 2002 Down From The Mountain Tour, a sold-out series of concerts inspired by the success of the O Brother album.