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
country mountain music time
I've always called my music old time mountain music or old time country music. I've never really called my music bluegrass.
call catching city country folk grew longer music nice quite trend
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.
best happened
It's one of the best things that ever happened to me, even if it was late.
changed sort
It sort of changed everything around for me,
bands best blessed bluegrass booked everywhere festivals good playing rest room sit solid speak standing travelling turned
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.
cds church baptists
I'm a member of the Primitive Baptist Church, and they will buy every CD that I have released, but they don't me just to bring the instruments much into the church.
father cutting men
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.
song people giving
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.
mother real school
My first banjo? My mother's sister, my aunt, lived about a mile from where we did, and she raised some hogs. And she had - her - the hog - the mother - they called the mother a sow - of a hog. And she had some pigs. Well, the pigs were real pretty, and I was going to high school and I was taking agriculture in school. And I sort of got a notion that I'd like to do that, raise some hogs. And so my aunt had this old banjo, and my mother told me, said, which do you want, the pig or a banjo? And each one of them's $5 each. I said, I'll just take the banjo.
men sorrow trouble
I am a man of constant sorrow. I've seen trouble all my days.
thinking years two
I think - I really think my voice has gotten better in the last two or three years. I don't know why. I've been doing a lot of - a lot more lead singing, and everybody tells me that my voice was better than ever and I agree with them. Maybe I've learned to do more with it. I don't know what.
style singing millions
I don't - I don't like that style, myself. I never did like Elvis's singing, but there was millions that did.
six miles born
I live about six miles from where I was born and raised.
mother littles tunes
My mother played a little bit of the old time clawhammer. She tuned the banjo up and picked one tune for me, and it just become natural to me. When she picked it, I just started and picked it, too.