Music For A Funeral

In the superb documentary, High Lonesome: The Story Of Bluegrass Music, Ralph Stanley sings a bit of this by himself. As you might expect, it is stark, spooky, autumnal. Strangely enough, this version, with it's trio harmonies, only serves to intensify those effects.

Music for a funeral from Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, with "Village Church Yard".

Bluegrass With A Bakersfield Accent

Yet another clip from Austin City Limits, this one with Ralph Stanley and his long-time lead singer, Charlie Sizemore. This must’ve been right around the time Sizemore was studying for his law degree at the University of Kentucky.

Yeah. Imagine being this talented in two areas of endeavor.

I've talked before about how Buck Owens sounded as much like bluegrass as Bakersfield. This clip has Charlie Sizemore walking that line, too, accompanied by Dr. Ralph’s mountain tenor (is it any wonder Dr. Ralph’s been called “The Man With the Hundred-Year-Old Voice”?)

This is a medley of “If I Lose” and “The Kitten and the Cat”.

Melisma Done Right

If you’re remotely into traditional bluegrass and haven’t seen this video, you may have been living in a cave.

I’m not posting it to alert you to newly-unearthed footage, but to highlight the melismatic Scots-Irish vocal style that is one of the building blocks of bluegrass music. If there’s a better example of that influence at work, I don’t know where to find it.

This is Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, featuring the astounding Keith Whitley on “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone”.

Local Color

More evidence that Ralph Stanley is the hardest of hardcore bluegrass artists: drankin’, ridin’ fer pleasure, and sheriff-shootin’, plus prison and court systems so merciless that one descriptive line about each suffices to ensure the sympathy of savvy locals.

This is “Old Richmond Prison”. And no, the irony is not lost on me: This story will only seem glamorous and romantic to many, simply because the perpetrator is W-H-I-T-E.

Staring Back

Sometimes, you just shake your head over how good a song is. This is one of those songs.

The recorded version (from Stanley’s wonderful, award-winning double CD, “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”) is slower, with the lilting rhythm of half-spoken, half-sung children’s taunts. This version -- from the must-see bluegrass documentary, Gather At the River -- is faster than any of those speeding bullets, suggesting that maybe the family ran away from the hate to greener pastures.

Then again, maybe they just learned to stare right back at the bigots who so scornfully referred to them as “Mountain Folks”.

Plot Twist

Powerful storytelling from Ralph Stanley and his successor as leader of The Clinch Mountain Boys, Ralph Stanley II.

For most of the song, you don’t even know you’re in for a story; it sounds like one more lament over leaving one’s mountain home during that young-and-foolish stage. Then, the last lines of that last verse join up with the final chorus, and the whole thing makes sudden, horrible sense.

This is “Home In the Mountains”.

Hope and Truth

Ralph Stanley. Because who else can you count on for a hopeful, yet truthful, song about death?

This one's called "Gloryland".

If you have friends in Gloryland
Who left because of pain,
Thank God up there, they’ll die no more
They’ll suffer not again

Then weep not friends, I‘m going home
Up there we’ll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore

The lame will walk in Gloryland
The blind up there will see
The deaf in Gloryland will hear
The dumb will talk to me

The doctor will not have to call
The undertaker – no
There’ll be no pain up there to bear
Just walk the streets of gold

We’ll need no sun in Gloryland
The moon and stars won’t shine
For Christ himself is light up there
He reigns of love divine

Then weep not friends, I’m going home
Up there we’ll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore

A Certified Classic ... What There Is Of It

The absolute euphoria I felt when I was bitten by the bluegrass bug was tempered with sadness. As I learned more about the music, I discovered that many of my new heroes -- Bill Monroe, John Duffey, Jimmy Martin, Chubby Wise, and Jim McReynolds, to name a few -- had recently passed on. Sonny Osborne had retired fron the stage, and Ralph Stanley had quit playing the banjo.

Thank God for "High Lonesome", which immortalizes selected performances of these bluegrass titans on film, while providing heartfelt personal reflections, unflinching historical context, and exceptionally apt musical examples. The historical sweep is epic, the music prodigious (There must be between 50 and 75 songs, divided between live performances and soundtrack music here).

There are dozens of little moments to break your heart -- Jimmy Martin's consummate showmanship, even playing for a camera crew in his den; the rapturous looks on the faces of Sam Bush and David Grisman in the presence of their hero, Bill Monroe; the Osborne Brothers' infectious humor, offset by their sober recollections of the Bluegrass Depression; the Seldom Scene's easy camaraderie and brilliant musicianship.

The only problem with "High Lonesome" is that it's far too short to fully explore this greatest of American art forms. Director Rachel Liebling poured her heart into this project, and had to scramble for funding. If she'd been a big-name Hollywood director, then "High Lonesome" would have been the multi-part mini-series that bluegrass music truly deserves -- the huge, cinematic celebration I'm still waiting for.

How To Read Bluegrass Reviews and Covers

Interpreting Trad Without the Sap

In contrast to rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass music prefers to stay in touch with its roots, even if they aren’t cool, hipster, and detached – probably because they aren’t.

For interpreters of traditional songs, this part of bluegrass culture presents a problem: How do you put these traditional songs across – particularly if they’re gospel songs – without seeming so earnest and on-the-nose that you lose credibility altogether?

You study the pioneers like crazy, and consider how you can apply their secrets to your own sound – that’s how. You study performances like this one by The Stanley Brothers. It’s unusual in that Ralph takes the lead.

It’s remarkable in that his vocal on this number is surely one of the greatest bluegrass vocals you’ve never heard. Every note is suffused with emotional truth in this performance of “Precious Memories”.

The Irish Ralph Stanley

I knew this was a collection of folk songs, of course, but this one in particular sounded so ancient that I thought the singer must be long dead. In fact, Paddy Tunney died in 2002, a contemporary of the first generation bluegrass singers of whom he reminds me so vividly. “The Irish Ralph Stanley,” I thought when I first heard Tunney sing.

Like Stanley, Paddy Tunney had an ear for emotional stories about people who have been marginalized by public shaming. This one’s called “Rockin’ the Cradle”.

Down From Mt. Olympus

Whaaaaat?

Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, keeping the blues in bluegrass; that’s what. And it’s an astounding duet. These two were meant to sing and pick together.

What a relief to hear Monroe blending with a lead singer instead of shouting him down. Dr. Ralph’s break is so perfect that it doesn’t even matter when he forgets the lyrics to the third verse.

This is one of those “historic performances” that lives up to its billing: Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys featuring Ralph Stanley on “Can’t You Hear Me Callin’?”

A few days ago, I posted a video by The Cumberland Highlanders, an ever-shifting amalgamation of bluegrass talent that includes former Blue Grass Boys, and some current Clinch Mountain Boys.
In this case, the band is fronted by no less than Ralph Stanley, and his son, Ralph II. They’re backed by once and future Blue Grass Boy, Butch Robins on banjo, and singing a Stanley Brothers favorite, “I Hear A Choo Choo Comin’.”

I figure I’m just being redundant if I say it’s amazing, and that you should devour every performance by this band that you can find.

Junior Sisk (that’s him in the vest) joins a band that’s been getting a lot of traction lately – Jeff Brown and Still Lonesome.

The tune is a Ralph Stanley classic, and everybody digs down deep to wring every last ounce of emotion from it. Just listen to those mandolin and fiddle breaks, and imagine how close to home this comes for Mr. Sisk. He sings this thing like somebody broke up with him just before he hit the stage.

This is “All I Ever Loved Was You”.

A Soulful Take On A Difficult Melody

This must surely be one of the most difficult melody lines that Dr. Ralph ever came up with.

Keith Whitley sang it memorably and brilliantly but, what Sammy Adkins lacks in technique, he more than makes up for in soul.

It doesn’t hurt that Dr. Ralph is singing his guts out, too. It’s almost as though he’s more inspired by young Sammy.

This is “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone”.

I’ve always loved The New Lost City Ramblers’ version of this Civil War song, but Ralph Stanley does a glorious, grassed-up version of it here. From the clear, sweet tone of the cross-picked guitar to the gospel-style harmonies of the chorus, this version of “The Vacant Chair” is exquisite.

For that matter, you might want to investigate this whole album, which almost plays like a “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” for the new millennium. On one disc, songs generally associated with the Union side; on the other, songs generally associated with the Confederacy. A fascinating, ambitious project.

Despite the album title, you can tell by the picture on the cover that Ralph II was still too young to sound like this. The lead vocalist is in fact Sammy Adkins.

That said, this song, written by Dr. Ralph with Earl Sykes, is nothing less than a love letter from a son to a father. As touching as it is, it’s a wonder this song never became a regular feature of Dr. Ralph’s sets. For that matter, it would have been a perfect choice for Hazel Dickens to cover.

Anyway, this is “Dirty Black Coal”.

The VW Boys, lampooning the post-O Brother, Where Art Thou? success of fellow Virginian, Ralph Stanley.

“This might sound a little bit like another song …”

“… But that ain’t it.”

It’s “The Ballad Of Ralph”.

Another rare track recorded live at the Berkshire Mountain Bluegrass Festival.

Everyone loves Ralph Stanley’s solo take on this one but, for my money, the trio versions, like this one that he did with Keith Whitley and Jack Cooke, beat the solo a capella iteration for sheer mountain spookiness.

This is, of course, “O, Death”.

Last Call For A Legendary Lineup

A short set, a legendary lineup, and some lovely moments from Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys.

This was to be Keith Whitley’s last tour with the CMB. He left to work for J.D. Crowe – yet another legendary collaboration.

Listen for Whitley’s emotive ornamentation on the last verse of “Rank Strangers”; the stunning harmony singing on “Let Me Love You One More Time”; the way Dr. Ralph and Curly Ray Cline tear into “Lost Train Blues”; the unusual arrangement of “Gloryland”, with Jack Cooke on tenor and Whitley on baritone; Cooke’s beautifully-economical bass work throughout.

This is one of those sets that makes me wish Keith Whitley had stuck with bluegrass.