Ralph Stanley
Ralph Stanley
Ralph Edmund Stanley, also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley, was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. Stanley began playing music in 1946, originally with his brother Carter as part of The Stanley Brothers, and most often as the leader of his band, The Clinch Mountain Boys...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth25 February 1927
CityMcclure, VA
CountryUnited States of America
I'm booked solid for this year, and I'll just be travelling and playing like always the rest of the year. I've turned down twenty-seven bluegrass festivals this year, and it's been standing room only everywhere we go. I can only speak for myself, but it's the best it's ever been for me. I've been blessed with a lot of good health. I get my rest and sit back a little. I think I've got one of the best, if not the best, bands I've ever had.
I tell them, 'I think it's quite hot.' They call it a trend, but if it is a trend it's been going for longer than I can remember. It's the music I grew up on as a country boy, and there's nothing else like it. It's nice to see the city folk are catching up.
It sort of changed everything around for me,
I'm thankful that I have lived long enough to become a legend, and I hope I deserve it.
The soundtrack of O Brother is the most publicity I've gotten. I don't feel that I have lost any of my old fans, but I have gained new ones.
I've done it all. I'm thankful and proud of what I've accomplished in my life. I hope to keep doing it.
No pleasure here on Earth I find. For in this world, I'm bound to ramble.
I don't listen to the radio too much, but usually I listen to Stanley Brothers and Ralph Stanley more than I do anybody!
Speaking of WAMU, [bluegrass and old time music DJ] Ray Davis did a lot of work there. I've know Ray, I guess for 50 years - 40, or 50 years. And, he plays a lot of my records.
I still go to that church now, and they don't believe in instruments in the church. But, my brothers and sisters in the church will listen to me. They will come out to a place to see me play. They will buy all of my records and everything, but they don't believe in bringing that instrument in the church. But, they'll come and watch me somewhere else. Why that is, I don't know.
I have plenty of good friends that I think the world of - and Bob [Dylan] is one of them, and I like his music - but with some others... their music I just don't care too much about all of it. Some of it I like.
I live about six miles from where I was born and raised.
You give out the words and then sing them. You give out the words, you know, and the people can hear what you're giving out, and they sing that song or that line and they do the same thing again.
My father was a logger. He cut timber and hauled it out of the woods and had a sawmill. They sawed it into lumber. And, you know, the mines needed things they call timbers and collars and so forth, and they used collars on the railroad track that they put the rails on. And he - that was his occupation, just a sawmill man and a logger.