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07/07/2006

Ralph Stanley, by Michael Gray

The third in a series of exclusive extracts from Michael Gray’s important new book, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia (Continuum, 2006).


Stanley, Ralph [1927 - ]

Ralph Stanley, younger brother of Carter, with whom he formed THE STANLEY BROTHERS, was born in Big Straddle Creek, in southwestern Virginia, on February 25, 1927. After Carter Stanley's premature death in 1966, bluegrass claw-hammer banjoist and high tenor singer Ralph continued to play, and after a gap revived the Clinch Mountain Boys, who had backed the Brothers. In 1997, still playing and singing extremely well, Ralph Stanley made a follow-up to his 2-CD set Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, not a retrospective soundtrack to the British 1950s Angry Young Men novel by Alan Sillitoe or the spin-off Albert Finney film (1960), but a mix of secular and gospel material with guest performers from Bill Monroe to EMMYLOU HARRIS.

The 1997 follow-up 2-CD set was billed as by 'Ralph Stanley & Friends' and titled Clinch Mountain Country, on which he performed on a total of 36 tracks, each one with a different partner or partners. The first person signed up for the project was Bob Dylan, who plays guitar and sings lead on the verses alongside Ralph's banjo (and shared chorus vocals) on a Stanley Brothers classic, 'The Lonesome River'.

Dylan's vocal is precarious but avoids the easy rasp, and when they sing together on the choruses it works extremely well. They recorded it in Nashville on November 30, 1997, along with an uncirculated
attempt at 'Riding the Midnight Train' and an earlier take of 'The Lonesome River'. Dylan overdubbed guitar onto the finished take later, and the set was released the following May on Rebel Records: the label Stanley had been on since the early 1970s. At the time of its release, this rebel was 70 years old and the sleevenotes claimed he was still performing 200 dates per year - which was more than Bob Dylan (who in 1998 played a mere 111).

The night after the recording, and the night after that, Dylan tried 'The Lonesome River' and the Stanley Brothers' 'The White Dove' at his soundchecks in Atlanta, but didn't play 'The Lonesome River' when it came to his performances. He did, however, play 'The White Dove' both nights and on a further four on that leg of the Never-Ending Tour.

Ralph Stanley was, inevitably, one of those turned to by T-BONE BURNETT when assembling the music for the film O Brother Where Art Thou (2000); it includes his recording of 'O Death'.

[Ralph Stanley: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Freeland 9001, US, 1993. Ralph Stanley & Friends: Clinch Mountain Country, Rebel RBL 0005001, US, 1998.]


© Michael Gray 2006



(In addition to this article on Ralph Stanley, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia also has an entry on the Stanley Brothers.)

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