Ralph Stanley
Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was a banjo player, singer, and bandleader from McClure, in southwest Virginia. He learned his first banjo tunes in the clawhammer style from his mother, Lucy Jane Smith Stanley, who played at local gatherings. He served in the Army for about a year after finishing high school in 1945. In 1946 he and his older brother, guitarist Carter Stanley, formed the Clinch Mountain Boys and began performing as the Stanley Brothers. They hosted the Farm and Fun Time program on WCYB in Bristol, Virginia, off and on for twelve years, and later recorded for Columbia. After Carter died in 1966, Ralph kept leading the Clinch Mountain Boys. Later members of the band included Larry Sparks, Roy Lee Centers, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Charlie Sizemore, Curly Ray Cline, and his son, Ralph Stanley II. Lincoln Memorial University gave him an honorary Doctor of Music degree in 1976, and he received a National Heritage Fellowship in 1984. He was inducted into IBMA's Hall of Honor in 1992 with the Stanley Brothers and again in 2000. In 2000 he also became the first new member of the Grand Ole Opry that year, and the Library of Congress named him a Living Legend. His a cappella "O Death," from the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, won the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 2002. Lost in the Lonesome Pines, his album with Jim Lauderdale, won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. He received the National Medal of Arts in 2006, and in 2009 he published a memoir, Man of Constant Sorrow, written with Eddie Dean. Yale gave him a second honorary doctorate in 2014. He died at his home in Sandy Ridge, Virginia, in 2016, at age 89.
In the newsletter
- No. 10 Winter 1997
- No. 12 Summer 1997
- No. 13 Fall 1997
- No. 16 Fall 1998
- No. 18 Winter 1999
- No. 23 Spring/Summer 2000
- No. 26 Spring 2001
- No. 31 December 2002