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Bluegrass great brings 'old-time mountain music' to church
The Bakersfield Californian
Thursday December 06, 2001,
08:35:03 PM
It might seem strange to find bluegrass master Ralph Stanley performing
Saturday in Bakersfield inside of a church. Yet there he'll be, at the Valley
Baptist Church on Fruitvale Avenue Saturday night.
After all, his signature tunes are mostly dark, spooky numbers like "Man
of Constant Sorrow" ("For I have seen all kinds of trouble/In this cruel
world no together can tell") and "Oh, Death" -- a let-me-live plea to Death
himself that Stanley sings with a haunted, warbled tenor -- not exactly gospel
praises.
But for Stanley, who's getting a respectable amount of publicity after a
cameo in the Coen brothers' hit film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" playing
in a house of God is a perfect fit.
For all of his recent successes -- a nationwide bluegrass resurgence,
crowds of college kids on up to elderly folks that flock to his hundreds
of shows a year, critical claims that he's one of the oldest living performers
of authentic American music -- Stanley is quick to credit his recent baptism.
"I think it's responsible for a lot of these good things that are happening
to me," Stanley said. "I was baptized about two years ago, and everything
started happening right after that. It was about two years ago in Richlands,
Virginia. In the Clinch River."
Stanley has long looked to God and the Clinch Mountain region, in that order,
for his musical inspiration. He still lives in that pristine area from his
childhood and calls his backing band the Clinch Mountain Boys.
A recent album, "Clinch Mountain Sweethearts," finds Stanley duetting with
a rich vein of American music's leading songstresses like Pam Tillis, Joan
Baez and Lucinda Williams on some of Stanley's favorite songs. The album
further illuminates Stanley's legacy-in-progress, although it does remind
listeners that Stanley, 74, won't be making music forever. Alongside younger
singers like Sara Evans, Stanley's voice -- which has always sounded reedy
and weathered like that of an old man -- is almost ghostly.
Maybe he's channeling the spirit of those bluegrass greats who left before
him. Or at least his influential late brother, Carter Stanley.
These days, Stanley is known for his solo efforts, but old-timers mostly
know him for his work with Carter, who died of liver disease in 1966 after
decades of hard drinking. The Stanley Brothers were a national hit in the
'50s, signed to Columbia Records to release tunes like "Molly and Tenbrooks."
Carter took the leads while Ralph handled high harmonies.
Carter's death was a major blow to Stanley, who considered quitting music afterward.
"We were brothers, and we felt like brothers, and we sang like brothers. It was just a great loss when I lost him," he said.
But as onetime Clinch Mountain Boy mandolin player Ricky Skaggs told The
New Yorker in an August feature on Ralph Stanley, "He didn't know any other
trade. He didn't have anything else to do."
Stanley's own music -- which he likes to call "old-time mountain music,"
not bluegrass -- is a sound largely inspired by folks like the late Bill
Monroe, for whom he played banjo in the '50s, and Earl Scruggs. Stanley's
playing style is sparse and tasteful, and these days it's held back even
more -- with Clinch Mountain Boy Stave Sparkman handling most of the difficult
stuff and Ralph's son Ralph Stanley II taking lead vocals on occasion.
It allows Stanley to focus more energy on his singing. Night after night,
he belts out those haunted melodies of life, of death and heavenly redemption,
channeling an American roots music that flows in and around his soul like
the waters of the Clinch River.
-- Tim Bullard, a freelance writer in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Californian staff writer Chris Page contributed to the story.
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