Stoughton Opera, Wisconsinwill present Dr. Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys playing on Saturday, Sept 12, at 7:30 pm. Dr. Ralph Stanley has been performing for 55 years and is a grand master of the mountain style of folk music—an older, sadder, less adorned style of mountain music than bluegrass.
He has performed on nearly 200 albums, has received a Living Legend award from the Library of Congress, is the first recipient of the Traditional American Music award from the National Endowment of the Arts, has won multiple Grammy Awards, and the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence.
Ralph Stanley’s voice is not of this century, or of the last one for that matter. Its stark emotional urgency is rooted in a darker time, when pain was the common coin of life and the world offered sinful humanity no hope of refuge. Preserved in the cultural amber of remote Appalachia, this terse, forlorn sound is the heartbeat of Ralph Stanley.
Dr. Stanley seriously wanted to be a veterinarian but, fortunately for bluegrass fans everywhere, he changed his mind and went with his older guitar playing brother Cater and formed the Clinch Mountain Boys. Drawing heavily on the musical traditions of the area, which included the unique minor-key singing style of the Primitive Baptist church and the sweet down-home family harmonies of the Carter Family, the Stanleys began playing on local radio stations.
Carter died of liver cancer in 1966 and Dr. Stanley carried on alone. In 2000, Stanleys music was featured in the hit movie, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? In which he sang the Appalachian dirge O Death. With that song, Stanley won a 2002 Grammy Award in the category of Best Male Country Performance. “That put the icing on the cake for me,” he says. “It put me in a different category.”
The Clinch Mountain Boys have proved to be the perfect back up for Ralph Stanley. The band has been the launching pad for such notable solo performers as Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Larry Sparks and Charlie Sizemore. -- www.cityofstoughton.com
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