Across the Blue Ridge #27 - The Music and Life of Ralph Stanley

This week's show celebrates the life and music of Ralph Stanley, the famed southwest Virginia singer and banjo player who died June 23, 2016 at age 89.  Stanley combined the Primitive Baptist hymns, banjo tunes and secular songs of his youth with newer influences and performed a unique style of mountain bluegrass music made all the more fascinating by his eerie, smoky high tenor voice.  He rocketed from respect within the bluegrass community to worldwide fame in 2000 after singing the song “O Death” in the Coen brothers movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou”.  Across the Blue Ridge host Paul Brown takes us on a tour of Ralph Stanley's music and career with the help of music historian Gary Reid, and lots of good music from the 1940s to late in Stanley's life.

Episode 27 playlist

1. Little Birdie – Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
   Man of Constant Sorrow
   Rebel 2001
    
2. Old Jake Gillie – Kessinger Brothers
   Complete Recorded Works
   Document 1997
    
3. Handsome Molly – Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
   Short Life Of Trouble; Songs Of Grayson And Whitter
   County 1996
    
4. O Death – Ralph Stanley
   O Brother Where Art Thou?
   Mercury/Lost Highway 2000
    
5. Mother No Longer Awaits Me At Home – Stanley Brothers
   The Complete Rich-R-Tone 78s
   Revenant 1997
    
6. The Girl Behind The Bar – Stanley Brothers
   The Complete Rich-R-Tone 78s
   Revenant 1997
    
7. BREAK 1 Wild Geese Cry Again -- Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
   Great High Mountain
   Rebel 2004
    
8. Amazing Grace – Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
   Great High Mountain
   Rebel 2004
    
9. I'll Remember You Love In My Prayers  -- Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
   Great High Mountain
   Rebel 2004
    
10. Rocky Island – Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
    Man Of Constant Sorrow
    Rebel 2001
     
11. Just Another Broken Heart – The Stanley Brothers
    Shadows Of The Past
    Copper Creek 1996
     
12. BREAK 2  Shout Lula -- Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
    Short Life Of Trouble
    Rebel 1996
     
13. Man Of Constant Sorrow – Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
    Man Of Constant Sorrow
    Rebel 2001
     
14. Mountain Rosalie -- Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
    Lonesome And Blue
    Rebel 1996
     
15. Great High Mountain -- Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
    Great High Mountain
    Rebel 2004
     
16. Clinch Mountain Backstep -- Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
    Great High Mountain
    Rebel 2004